Wild Things

Wild Things

As reported by Dollyforme

Swamp 'Things' - John MacNaughton's Wild Things is one of the sexiest movies to come along in a while, but that's only for the first half-hour. After that, it turns into a guessing game of who's alive and who's dead, who's involved, and who's going to be the winner, with new endings popping up one after the other.

But on with the sex part. Wild Things has in its cast Neve Campbell (Scream and Scream 2), one of the flat-out cutest people walking the earth, and Denise Richards, a newcomer who was in Starship Troopers, who is the product of 90's-style nutrition and exercise, and is chiseled into a perfect creature. McNaughton has a ball using their every gesture, every move, every blink of their eyes, to suggest sex. Everything they do can be seen as some kind of flirt, or grinding motion, or tease. It's incredibly hot.

Matt Dillon stars as Sam Lombardo, a high school counselor and boat enthusiast. He is accused of rape by both Kelly Van Ryan (Richards) and Suzie (Campbell). Kelly is the daughter of the richest and most powerful woman in town Sandra Van Ryan (Theresa Russell), who proceeds to destroy Lombardo's life. Suzie is "swamp trash," a poor girl who lives in a trailer by the Florida swamplands. During the trial, it comes out that both girls are lying, and Mrs. Van Ryan has to pay off Lombardo for all the horrible things she's done to him.

The French call it nostalgie de la boue, meaning nostalgia for the mud. I call it the need to wallow. Now and then, darn it, enough with world peace, a cure for cancer and compassion for the poor. I need slime! I need scum! I need sleaze!

Did somebody say "Wild Things"?

This is a neo-noir along femme fatale lines, with a hint of child molestation thrown in for spice. The femmes fatales are about 17. If you feel distinctly uncomfortable when asked to respond sexually to teenagers, then this is not the movie for you.

Matt Dillon plays a high school guidance counselor in steamy Florida (the director, John McNaughton, has fun cutting away to suggestive images of hungry gators). He's the most popular teacher at Blue Bay High, where every female student has a body made for sin and a mouth made for pouting and a look so come-hither no man could not go yon. The movie makes you feel as if you've invaded some dirty old man's fantasies. Unclean!

When one of these over-sexualized children – Denise Richards, of "Starship Troopers" – accuses Dillon of rape, he's investigated by a dour cop (Kevin Bacon), stripped of his job and put on trial. So quickly that you know more twists will follow, that case falls apart, Dillon sues for libel and is suddenly $8 million richer.

Well, I'll spare you a twist-by-twist synopsis to leave some room for coverage of Washington, D.C., in today's newspaper. The movie is a plot-o-rama, a revelation machine. Every damn thing turns out to be something else, then that thing changes.

Then we find out that this whole thing was planned, but by whom and how is not made clear until the very end.

Finally the twists come so fast they leave you dizzy, and there're even six twists or so left over for the credits!

The movie is as tawdry as someone else's lingerie, yet not without a certain prurient watchability. Though if any male high school teachers are caught in the audience, I suggest instant exile to the U.S. Marine Corps. It's that kind of movie.

I heartily recommend Wild Things for its fits of teasing and eroticism (rare in American cinema) and for Bill Murray who has a great role as Lombardo's attorney. Expect to see something along the lines of the drive-in classic Gator Bait, a 1970's movie starring Playboy playmate Claudia Jennings as a sexy "swamp trash."

DVD Details: In conjunction with 2004's straight-to-video sequel, Columbia/TriStar has released the original in an "unrated version" with about two more minutes of footage; the best of which is used on Russell. The movie is available separately, or in a two-pack. Wild Things is still a lot of fun years later, and looks great in its new 1 to 2.35 transfer. Extras include a Japanese-language track, subtitles, up-to-date filmographies and trailers for Wild Things, Wild Things 2, Cruel Intentions, New Best Friend and the straight-to-video Sin, starring Ving Rhames.