Gil Junger’s gift is for comedy that takes people’s feelings seriously. We recommend 10 Things I Hate About You for its warmth and difficult heroine, while wishing he trusted his actors enough to do a little less.
Fi1m perspective
Katarina Stratford is allowed to be angry in 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), and Gil Junger does not hurry to make her agreeable. Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger give the courtship warmth without making everyone easier company. We warmed to Katarina because her anger is taken seriously even when the comedy finds her difficult. Junger gives his actors room to make that distinction felt. This is a funny, generous film, and his willingness to let a performance complicate a joke is a substantial part of its appeal.
His feature debut followed television directing on sitcoms including Blossom and Ellen. The later features include the time-travel comedy Black Knight (2001) and the fantasy romance If Only (2004). He also wrote and directed the family film Think Like a Dog (2020). Across those changes of subject, his stated preference has been for character and feeling, with performances that do not look overworked. That is a useful instinct for comedy, provided the film around the actors knows when to leave them alone.
In 10 Things I Hate About You, writers Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith deserve credit for adapting The Taming of the Shrew without treating its heroine’s anger as a problem to be tidied away. O. Nicholas Brown’s editing gives the exchanges a briskness that suits Junger’s comic instincts. The party scenes, however, drag, and predictable business gets repeated. Richard Gibbs’s score serves the lighter passages well, but the wider use of music presses the romance harder than it needs. Stiles and Ledger have already persuaded us; some of that encouragement can be dispensed with.
We are interested in Junger when he lets comic characters remain difficult. His attention to actors is worth following beyond this film, though we would welcome a firmer hand with the material around them. Start with 10 Things I Hate About You, and allow a little patience for the parties.
Biography
Gil Junger (born 7 November 1954) is an American film and television director. He graduated from Trinity-Pawling School in Pawling, New York, in 1972 and attended the University of Texas at Austin's Radio, TV, and Film School before beginning his career in Hollywood.
Junger is best known for directing the feature film 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), his directorial debut. He has also directed the films Black Knight (2001), If Only (2004) and Think Like a Dog (2020), as well as numerous television episodes and TV movies, including work on Ellen, According to Jim, 8 Simple Rules and Kyle XY. He received Emmy and Directors Guild of America nominations for an episode of Ellen.
