Both of them predate the invention of the YA label, so it's kind of tough to say with any accuracy what they'd be filed under now if they were released today. Both have been labeled adult fiction, YA (or juvenile), and children's books over the course of their history. At the time they were released, they were just…

Harry Potter is pretty terribly written . . .but that doesn't mean that kids can't learn things from it. There are a ton of basic storytelling concepts that kids can take from that series and carry with them for the rest of their lives, that will help them dissect and relate to things they read later. There are…

I absolutely believe that there are gender issues at play with how Dessen is treated in regards to Green—those Dessen covers have been god-awful for years, and it's so depressing that even as one of the biggest names in the industry, that's still what she's getting saddled with (although the cover for her upcoming…

The only reason people think of that movie fondly is because the fact that Tom Hanks played that role made them blind to how skeevy his behavior actually was. Anybody else in that role, they would have noticed immediately.

Well, you're not going to catch me arguing that You've Got Mail is a good romantic comedy! I think we're supposed to feel like Hanks' character is softening, learning there's more to life than financial success, learning to interact with people in a more human way, etc.—but I agree with you that the movie doesn't…

There is! Most of the townspeople believe she's not a virgin, and for at least part of the musical, Harold Hill does as well—that's why he sings "The Sadder But Wiser Girl." But she's cleared of that suspicion by the end. She and the rich old guy were just friends.

To be fair, in The Music Man, the question is actually "Who will the old, virginal girl sleep with?" Marian's supposed to be a bit of a spinster. (Just a bit, though.)

No, it's amazing! In a horrible way. I think it's the most '80s movie to ever exist: cocaine parties with nouveau riche Saudis, a slow descent into yuppiedom, wannabe saxophone stars, stalking disguised as romance (Emilio isn't even the sole offender, just the worst one—Andrew McCarthy hoards photos of his friend's…

So you don't believe in premarital sax, is that what you're saying?

I mean, a defining part of the MPDG is that he/she exists solely to further the protagonist's development. If you're writing a halfway decent romantic comedy, then both characters are furthering each other's development. That's pretty much an inescapable hallmark of the romance genre. Yes, Richard Gere saves Julia…

"You Belong with Me" is teenage-girl-memorizing-her-crush's-class-schedule-so-she-can-"accidentally"-bump-into-him-in-the-halls stalkery. "Every Breath You Take" is John Hinkley Jr. stalkery.

Eh, I always assumed that her change was likewise non-permanent, but, given her wardrobe/hairstyle, there was no easy way to show it. My take on the ending was that they both made the effort to meet halfway, and in the process realized how dumb it was that they were putting so much stock in other people's approval, so…

"Bad Blood" was about Katy Perry, I thought? She did an interview talking about how it was about a rival in the industry, not an ex.

St. Elmo's Fire contains my personal favorite—Emilio Estevez shows up at a ski lodge to make a grand declaration of love to Andie MacDowell, while she's there with her boyfriend. The roads are so bad that, even after learning that Estevez is there to hit on his girlfriend, the boyfriend lets him spend the night on the…

I can't count on one hand the number of times a guy has tried to, like, play a song for me on the guitar while I just . . . sit there trying to make approving faces, and it is never anything but horrendously awkward. Even if you like the guy, it still plays out identically to that Freaks and Geeks scene.

If we're going to nominate a moment from that movie, flashing your teacher in order to get your crush out of detention is worse.

Ten Things I Hate About You has the best minor characters of any teen movie ever. I think you could take any one-line (or no-line) character from that movie—Hispanic drum major, Nigel with the brie, the stoner who responds "I've never been that ripped" when asked if he would date Kat—and I would watch a movie about…

Grease sure as hell doesn't depict a healthy relationship, but everybody misremembers the ending. Yeah, Sandy changes for Danny—but he changes for her too! And none of the surface-level I'm-gonna-rat-my-hair-and-smoke-a-cigarette-and-then-he'll-love-me shit, either. He joins the track team to impress her! He tries out…

I was disappointed that the entire list wasn't made up of things Ted did.

Oh, I wasn't necessarily disagreeing with the rest of your post. I think it's clear that she has used that kind of wink-wink tabloid gossip narrative to sell her albums. I also think it's clear that by the way that she dialed it back with 1989 that she isn't entirely comfortable with the fallout of her decision to do…