All I Wanna Do: Amazon.ca: DVD: DVD

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When Odette (Gaby Hoffman) gets kicked out of her coed school for plotting to lose her virginity (All I Wanna Do is set in 1963), her parents send her to Miss Godard's Preparatory School, an all-girls school that tries to instill independence in its students. Her roommates turn out to be the school's troublemakers--Verena (Kirsten Dunst), Tinka (Monica Keena), and their friends Tweety (Heather Matarazzo) and Momo (Merritt Weaver). Though Odette initially resists (not because she wants to stick to the rules, but because she hates the whole school so much she won't even join the rebels), she gradually becomes part of the rambunctious circle. Due to financial trouble, the school's trustees decide to merge with a nearby boys' academy, despite the furious protests of Miss Godard's headmistress (Lynn Redgrave). Verena echoes the headmistress's sentiments and launches an offensive of pranks to discredit the visiting boys, even though the struggle splits apart her own social group. Though All I Wanna Do is being marketed as a goofy romp, it walks a line between a coming-of-age comedy and a young feminist manifesto (as one might imagine from the movie's previous title, Strike!). It's a tricky combination, but writer-director Sarah Kernochan succeeds--she also wrote Impromptu, which similarly mixed tart yet sympathetic humor with subtle political commentary. The direction is tight and the script allows its heroines a surprising complexity. The cast of rising young stars, also featuring Rachael Leigh Cook, is superb throughout. Strongly recommended. --Bret Fetzer

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Customer Reviews

22 Reviews

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4.7 out of 5 stars (22 customer reviews)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A comic hymn to female independence, Jun 16 2000

By

David Clapp "David" (TN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

"Strike!" [All I wanna do](1998) has had a hard life, but is a good teen comedy about a girl's school from the perspective of fairly sophisticated girls and deserves a larger audience. The original title for this film was "The Hairy Bird." Miramax purchased distribution rights, changed the name to "Strike!," failed to advertise it, and then gave it a very short run in a limited U.S. release before moving on to other countries. The movie, under the new but equally unhelpful title "All I wanna do," was rereleased this year in New York and went on sale last week as a new DVD.

The story follows students combating a threatened merger with a boy's school. What makes it worthwhile is the principal cast (Lyn Redgrave, Kirsten Dunst, Rachel Leigh Cook, Gaby Hoffman), some of the dialogue, and the point of view. Sarah Kernochan received full support from her team of actresses for a warm heartfelt comedy about smart independent women keeping control over their own lives. Insofar as she kept to the conversations between the girls and the headmistress, it all rang true. The portrayal of teenage male townies in the film, however, is excruciatingly bad, and Kernochan made Redgrave's headmistress too ineffectual for my taste. Excepting these two elements, it all worked well. "All I wanna do" offers a unique comic take on women who make their own way in the world and don't take compromise for granted.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Bring back Strike., Oct 23 2009

By

Patsy Tomkins (Vancouver, BC, CAN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: All I Wanna Do (DVD)

It appears a re-branding of the movie has taken out a select few scenes from the original, overall still a great classic and makes me think I shouldn't've been watching this movie at age 9.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Up Your Ziggy With A Wa Wa Brush, Jan 6 2003

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Rachael (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This movie was absolutley hilarious! It's about a girl named Oddie, who decides to loose her virginity with her boyfriend Dennis. Her parents find out and send her to Mrs. Goddards girl school. At first, Oddie would rather be anywhere than where she is but then she starts to realize that her new friends Tweety, Verena, and a few others, are more like her than she thought. She joins the Daughters of the American Ravioli club. As for Rachael Leigh Cook, she plays a very shall we say tattle-tale girl named Abby.Then, Abby's mother announes that the school is thinking about going coed with a boy school. They're throwing a party with the boys school, and if everything goes right the schools will go coed. So, the club gets together and plans a way to make everything go wrong. Verena is supposed to get paired up with a guy named Frost, untill Abby changes the list that is. Poor Abby has a terrible night, what with Verena picking on her, but oh well, we know she'll be just fine. Verena lures Mr. Frost into Abby's room and drugs him to make it look like Abby was sleeping with him. But instead, Verena starts making out with him and gets caught by Abby. After that disaster the board is still voting coed. But Oddie gets all of the girls to lock themselves in the school until the board decides to change their mind. In the end Abby Displays an enourmous amount of courage and stands up against her mom, who is on the board. Good Shoe.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic!
This is one of the best "chick flicks" of all time! It's about woman power and a great flick for any teen 16+. "Up your ziggy with a wawa brush!"

Published 1 month ago by Sherri K

5.0 out of 5 stars Astonishingly quick shipping time!
As already noted, I was shocked by how quickly the DVD arrived in the mail (2-3 days), especially considering that the post office was on strike at the time. Read more

Published 6 months ago by Cheryl A. Burgess