Anything for Love aka Just One of the Girls (Film Review)

1993 Vidmark Entertainment
Directed by: Michael Keusch; Written by: Raul Fernandez
Starring: Corey Haim and Nicole Eggert
MPAA Rating: R; Running Time: 91 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 5/10

Chris dreams of a career in music, and he's found just the high school to get him there. The only issue is that the school is also home to a sadistic group of bullies who seem strangely obsessed with getting physical with Chris. To still fulfill his dreams, yet avoid the bullies, Chris comes up with an idea so crazy, it just might work. With a wig, some dresses, a pair of fake boobs, and a high-pitched fake voice, he'll disguise himself as a girl...and boy, does it work. Before he knows it, Chris is attracting the bullies' attentions for completely different reasons. In fact, the lead bully, Kurt, has fallen in love with him. Naturally, Kurt's sister, Marie, is the object of Chris' affection. Now he's trying to get closer to Marie by joining her as a cheerleader, while continuously humbling Kurt to be a more sensitive and caring person, all while successfully taking his music classes...as girl. Complications--MAJOR COMPLICATIONS--ensue.
Corey Haim was a magnetic and charming actor, taken from the world far to early due to the excesses and evils of Hollywood. Anything for Love, also known as Just One of the Girls is silly straight-to-DVD fare, but I'd be lying if I said Haim wasn't just as fun here as just about anyone has been in a teen sex comedy. Yes, this movie is incredibly stupid, but Haim, likely not in any way sober during filming, carries it just fine anyway.
With that said, it's tough to make sense of this film's gender and sexual politics, but at the same time, it's admirable that it even tries to do some of the things it does, considering the time period. The moral panic of Chris' father as he keeps getting conflicting reports on what is actually going on with his son is clearly satire, and fairly complex for a film like this. The way this messy movie concludes Chris and Marie's relationship is also satisfyingly complex, as a lesser film would just have them literally kiss and make up and then presumably have sex. That's...not what happens here.
As progressive as certain elements are, there are other elements here that clearly place this in the trashy bargain bin. The only reason I was personally aware of this film in the 90's is due to multiple scenes where Chris, who everyone assumes is a girl, is sent to clean the girl's showers. Predictably, the showers are full of very nude, very busty women. Thus, there is frequent full-frontal nudity in this otherwise very sweet and gentle film, where characters are more likely to say "gosh darn it" than swear. Obviously, the tonal inconsistencies this creates are pretty ridiculous, but considering the amount of rentals those scenes likely added in the early 90's, I understand why the producers requested them.

Just like the wavering tone, the dialogue here can be pretty goofy, but at other times, strangely smart and incisive. I absolutely cannot pretend I wasn't having a good time watching this. Even the madcap scenes where Chris has to bounce back and forth in identities, to multiple people in his house, are pretty well done, and just barely predate such scenes in the classic Mrs. Doubtfire, released several months afterward. When it comes to late 80's/early 90's teen sex comedies, you can do a lot worse than whatever this movie is called.