A-Z #55 Cruel Intentions

You can pick up hundreds of DVD's for a round-pound each - it doesn't matter. Its never about quantity, its about quality. A-Z is my way of going through my collection, from A-Z, and understanding why I own the films ... or you can tell me why I should sell 'em

#55 - Cruel Intentions 

Why did I buy it?

At the time, it was cool. It was hip. It was one of the few films that was on DVD months before it was released on VHS. It had hotty Sarah Michelle Gellar in it. It has stunner Reese Witherspoon in it and, most importantly, it was about sex. At 16 years old, that was pretty much at the forefront of my mind.

Why do I still own it?

At the time this was the film to show when people came around. On the one hand, diluted down sex - its not porn - whereby everyone can enjoy it. It has a few good talking points - should you wait until marriage for sex? Not if Ryan Phillippe has anything to do with it. Is it classed as incest if the two step-brother and step-sister have sex? I mean, they are not blood-related. When Reese Witherspoon pulls those faces, does it highlight her playfulness or, more importantly, how freakishly big her forehead is? Its a tough call.

Its an adaptation of Dangerous Liasons and so, you could argue, there is a literary starting point - raising the film that little bit higher than American Pie and Save the Last Dance. In all honesty, I think it is a classy teen-movie and very few of these exist. Other than Cruel Intentions there are no other teen-romances which come across as so smooth and, for want of a better word, 'cool'. I mean, the kids are all in the upper-class world of New York. They have incredibly sweet cars and dress immaculately. The soundtrack is awesome - Placebo, Elisabeth Fraser and Craig Armstrong and - to top it off - it ends with The Verve's 'Bittersweet Symphony'.

I think, too often, I may have shown this to girls I fancied as a teenager in the hope that - for some inexplicable reason - they would look at me and think "y'know, he is alot like Ryan Phillippe..." and we would make love (or at least make out) until the early hours (I say early hours, probably more like 10 o'clock because both our parents wouldn't be too keen on letting us stay up so late) and I would simply imagine myself writing in a journal about my conquests. Unfortunately, this never happened, which meant there was no need for a journal. If I had a journal - rather than having intricate drawings of rosary-beads that hide cocaine and collages of newspaper clippings, it would simply read: "So, I put on Cruel Intentions on and we watched it. Then she left. Again. We both agreed it was a good film."

Should I sell it though?