Movie Review: Drive Me Crazy (1999)

Over the years, I’ve been looking for teen movies to watch from the 1980’s, 1990’s, and 2000’s. One of the movies I wanted to watch is Drive Me Crazy. I didn’t remember it well, so I wanted to re watch it. I had the chance to recently, so I wanted to write a review about it.

The plot synopsis of the movie on Google says…

Nicole (Melissa Joan Hart) and Chase (Adrian Grenier) live next door to each other but are worlds apart. However, they plot a scheme to date each other in order to attract the interest and jealousy of their respective romantic prey. But in the mist of planning a gala centennial celebration, Nicole and Chase find that the one they always wanted was closer than they ever thought.

While trying to find a plot synopsis of the movie I found there are a few plot summaries that interpret the movie in different ways. To me, this one is one of the most accurate to the movie.

This movie is one of many rom-coms targeted to teenagers in the 1990’s to the early 2000’s. I remember wanting to see it because I loved the Britney Spears song, Drive Me Crazy, is not has the same name of the movie, but is also featured in the movie. Of course, I don’t remember much about the movie except I didn’t like it very much. I didn’t remember why, but after I rewatched it I realized why I didn’t like it when I saw it for the first time.

The movie’s plot is definitely the kind of story  I wouldn’t like back then and today. Even though I’m more mature about whether or not I like a plot like the one in Drive Me Crazy, I still am not fond of it. Nicole and Chase’s fake relationship to attract the people they like is something I saw before in my personal life with really terrible results. Since my personal feelings towards these kinds of relationships driving my dislike of the movie, I wanted to see if there is anything I actually like in the movie.

To be honest, I really liked certain parts of the movie. The subplot of one of Chase’s friends was enjoyable. The friend was the geeky kid of the school and spends most of the first half of the movie trying to meet someone he met online in person. Many of the characters scoffed at him, thinking he is making the woman up, or is being catfished, until the end of the movie when he discovered the true identity of his online friend.

Aside from Chase’s friend’s love life subplot, there are other parts of the movie that cause the story to be more complicated that it seems. There is Nicole’s best friend who, it turns out, is not as good a friend as she leads Nicole to believe. There is Nicole’s love interest and how he acts and treats others, which hits at a deeper problem with him as a love interest. Also, there is Nicole’s attempt to make Chase one of the popular kids, of which she is one. And finally, there is the causes Chase advocates for by civil disobedience, which has a more personal reason besides caring for the world.

Overall, I don’t really like the movie because of how hard it is on certain issues. Many of the characters are open and honest about subjects that teens were not supposed to be back then. Despite this, the way the characters talk, including using curse words that cause the movie to be PG-13, was a normal way for teenagers in my high school to talk like.

So, do I want to rewatch the movie over and over again? No. Still, that doesn’t make me say this movie is not worth a watch, especially if the plot, subject matter, and the way the characters talk like in movie doesn’t bother you. Also, it’s a must-watch for anyone who wants to do a proper binge-watch of 1990-2000 teen rom-com movies.

Well, that’s all for now! Thank you for reading!