Drive Me Crazy

Drive Me Crazy (1999) came out of the late nineties teen comedy wave and sits at the lighter end of it. Nicole and Chase grew up next door to each other and drifted apart in high school. She is in the popular group, he has stopped trying to fit anywhere. Each wants to make someone else jealous before the school dance, so they fake a relationship. You know how it ends within ten minutes, and the film knows you know. The appeal of the genre was never the surprise, it is the route. Melissa Joan Hart was enormously well known at the time from Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and the film is built around that. The Britney Spears song of the same name was released afterwards and ended up more famous than the film itself. The IMDb score is low and not unfairly. It still does the job if you want the era back for ninety minutes. Good for: nineties nostalgia, light romantic comedy, and the soundtrack. It is short. Less good for: anyone wanting a sharp script or a film worth remembering. There are much better examples of exactly this genre, and they are worth reaching for first.