I promise it’s an entertaining film (I have been plagued by it ever since watching it).
*TW: death, violence, revenge porn, incest
As I stumbled (read: finally decided to watch) upon the greatness that is Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and therefore Sarah Michelle Gellar, a few weeks ago, I remembered having watched another film with her in it – Cruel Intentions – several years ago, when I still could not comprehend how absolutely iconic this film actually is. Upon rewatching it, I realised exactly how camp etc. it is, but also how very different it is to many other classic-book-to-late-90s-slash-early-2000s-film adaptations, especially in terms of how dark it is for a teen drama from the 90s. I mean, firstly there are multiple scenes of weird step-sibling incest that are extremely uncomfortable to watch, and then, as if that was not enough, even in the opening credits it’s fairly clear how dark it is when the camera pans over a cemetery with the song ‘Every You Every Me’ by Placebo, playing in the background — as in the song that has the lyric ‘Carve your name into my arm,’ which although may sound sexy to some people is a sharp turn away in mood from films such as Clueless (which, to be fair, does have another uncomfortable pseudo-incestual plotline of its own).
The problematic features of the film are innumerable. The aforementioned step sibling incest is only the first thing in a long list of weird stuff: somehow Sebastian(Ryan Philippe) manages to get with his therapist’s daughter and leak the photos he has taken of her to the whole world, Kathryn (Sarah Michelle Gellar <3) is arguably the character who is the most severely punished for enjoying sex and coke (the girl needs addiction counselling, not to be ridiculed by her whole school and expelled). Even Sebastian somehow gets his moment of redemption by going from a slut to a one-woman man in the span of around five business days before being brutally killed, which is honestly a more dignified end than what he deserves, and it is astounding how Annette (Reese Witherspoon) manages to forgive him for betting on him being able to take her virginity. The fact that it is implied that Reese Witherspoon somehow makes Sebastian fall in love with her in the span of half an hour in the fancy vintage Jaguar Sebastian drives around in by making silly faces that are not even especially good is insane, and the fact that Sebastian somehow is seen as the good guy at the end of the film even more so. Also noteworthy is the fact that the f-slur is mentioned in pretty much every other scene, and that Annette is initially questioned about whether she may be a lesbian by Sebastian for not wanting sex out of wedlock, which objectively feels very strange to look back on over twenty years later. Then there is also the infamous kiss between Cecile (Selma Blair) and Kathryn that ends with a very obvious strand of saliva (an artistic choice I am not a fan of, personally) which is a fairly obvious ploy for men to watch the film but also…a life changing scene. These are of course only some of the problematic aspects, there are even more, which is concerning in itself.
Even though I am aware of all these frankly damning aspects of the film, I somehow cannot take my mind off it; it has haunted me from the moment I watched it two weeks ago and I have had several conversations with my friends purely consisting of me raving about the campiness and insanity of Cruel Intentions and about how I simply cannot escape the chokehold it has on me right now. There is something about it that I can’t put my finger on that makes it impossible for me to think about anything else. Sure, it’s controversial and problematic at best, but it is also absolutely riveting content, and I fall for these cheap entertainment ploys every single time. It is also very important to consider this film as a product of its own time. If it were remade and set in the 2020s important changes would have to be made, especially in terms of signifiers that do not have the same meaning as they did in 1999 (Sebastian being the only character to consistently use a flip phone for example, establishes him as someone not to be trusted as no one can overhear conversations had on it; obviously very handy if you are planning on ruining people’s lives). Apart from anything else, Cruel Intentions is extremely fun and maliciously entertaining to watch, and even though it may not be highly critically acclaimed, that does not mean it is not worth watching. In fact, I would argue that because it is fairly controversial (and because it maybe has not aged too gracefully) it would be interesting for as many people as possible to watch it and to bring it back since it could be a wonderful source of debate. Whether one adores it or absolutely despises it, it serves as a reminder to be thankful we are not rich teenagers living in Manhattan, and also that maybe we should avoid placing bets on sleeping with people.
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