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Cruel Intentions – 1999 Kumble
- Transcends (that word choice may be an overstatement) beyond
guilty pleasure mainly because of Kumble’s writing—it’s such a deliciously
wicked—Machiavellian– adaptation of the 18th century book by Pierre
Choderlos de Laclos and excellent (superior to this film) 1988 film by Stephen
Frears
- The debt owed to the Frears film is clear—we have the casting of
Swoosie Kurtz (the psychiatrist in the uproarious opening) – clearly the name
is just a quick synonym search
- The houses and opulent settings these live in could easily be
from Dangerous Liaisons or Marie Antoinette or Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech
- 97 minutes- it snaps along which compliments the film for the
most part until the last 15 minutes when the whirlwind downfall death
trajectory is just rush—really weak
- I think it’s a close cousin to the string of teen movie Shakespeare
adaptations of the 1990’s from Clueless to
10 Things I Hate About You– modern
setting updating from rich source material- great move
- A number of attention-grabbing/seeking sexual scenes like the
infamous lesbian kiss, the “down boy” scene with Sarah Michelle Geller—the casting
of Joshua Jackson
- The soundtrack is great from “Bitter Sweet Symphony” at the end—the
Counting Crows—the Fatboy Slim “Praise You”—some of the best music of the time
- The casting of Christine Baranski is inspired- such a perfect
evil rich woman and plays this up in everything out there it seems including
1990’s Reversal of Fortune
- The film is far from perfect—didn’t get good reviews and some of
it is for good reason. It does feel like kids (who are not nearly as talented
as the actors in Dangerous Liaisons)
playing grownup in scenes. I do think Sarah Michelle Geller is very good as the
villainous puppet master
- Recommend- barely not near the top 20 of 1999
Drake2019-08-15T14:09:14+00:00
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Why are you archiving films like Cruel Intentions and not archiving a valuable film like Cinderella Liberty(1973)-Which was even nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Picture?
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