DRIVE ME CRAZY
Drive Me Crazy is about a girl's desire to have the boy she loves
take her to the high school's centennial celebration. Hart is Nicole Maris,
who, along with a small committee, is in charge of the biggest event in
the school's 100-year history. She wants Brad (Gabriel Carpenter), the basketball
star, to take her, but he has recently fallen for a cheerleader. Meanwhile,
her next-door neighbor, beatnik Chase Hammond (Adrian Grenier) has been
dumped by his beatnik girlfriend Dulcie (Ali Larter, Varsity
Blues). So the two, who have been mutually antagonistic quasi-friends
since childhood, decide they will scam their respective love interests.
In order for Nicole to snag Brad and Chase to win Dulcie back, Nicole and
Chase will pretend to be lovers, thus creating jealousy in the other two.
This way, even if the plan doesn't achieve its intended results, they will
still have a date to the dance.
Of course, as the deception goes on, the two discover they care more
about each other than the others, but neither wants to admit it. Meanwhile,
Chase's friends (Mark Webber and Kris Park) make fun of him for dating a
society geek like Nicole, and Nicole's friend (Susan May Pratt, 10 Things I Hate About You) makes fun of her
for dating a loser like Chase. Also thrown in is Nicole's openly hostile
relationship with her absent father (Stephen Collins) and Chase's own father
(William Converse-Roberts) constantly suspecting him of using drugs.
Drive Me Crazy is director Schultz's sophomore effort, after 1996's Bandwagon; it is written by freshmen Todd Strasser and Rob Thomas. The inexperience shows. The film is poorly paced and there are digressions and plot twists that boggle the mind. There is no chemistry between Hart and Grenier; in fact, there is none between Hart and anyone. She seems detached, almost depressed throughout the film, and her lack of energy brings the whole flimsy structure crashing down. **