Can't Buy Me Love
(1987)
Patrick Dempsey and Amanda Peterson
Before Grey's Anatomy or Loverboy Patrick Dempsey was just a high school dork paying his way to popularity. However, we haven't seen much of Amanda Peterson since this movie, excluding the made for TV movie about life as a Playboy centerfold, Posing: Inspired by Three Real Stories.
Can't Buy Me Love is romantic comedy about a senior geek, Ronald Miller, who pays the head cheerleader, Cindy Mancini to pretend to date him, just so he can be popular.
The movie shares the same theme as Heathers, because it addresses teen angst and high school clicks. Cindy also treats popularity like a job, except she is refreshingly down to earth, smart, and well rounded. Plus, it ends with a more realistic and empowering perspective than Heathers.
This movie is does an excellent job of exploring high school society through dialogue:
Ronald Miller: We do have a lot of great memories but be honest....Wouldn't you like to be popular?
Kenneth Wurman: And have to be in a clique....no.
Ronald Miller: What happened to us? We were all friends in elementary.
Kenneth Wurman: That's because we were all forced to be in the same room together. But, hey, Junior high, high school. Forget it. Jocks became Jocks. Cheerleaders became cheerleaders. We became us. I like us.
Ronald Miller: I just think it would be more fun to party with those guys our senior year...go to the games...
Kenneth Wurman: We go to ALL the games.
Ronald Miller: We sit in the visiting section Kenneth....at our own school.
To top it off, this movie is can't-hold-back-my-tears funny with lines like,
Cindy Mancini: Guys, take a look at forehead... do you see a sign that says information?
and
Cindy Mancini: Iris? Oh yeah, she's a big conquest. She's given more rides than Greyhound!
This movie really works because the theme is timeless, but it's presented with such a comedic spin that you can watch it again and again; much in the same vein as Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Weird Science.
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