July 24 movie: Wild Things. Oh lordie! Such an extravaganza of sleaze. I remembered enjoying this the first time I watched it, and I had to get it from Netflix when the AV Club put it in their New Cult Canon. The AV Club asks if Wild Things is so bad it's good, or so good it's good. For me it's definitely the latter.
This time I actually watched the movie twice, without and then with the commentary. I didn't have any trouble following the plot twists, but I did have trouble understanding why the plot is as complicated as it is. I was hoping the commentary would address this (and provide a better answer than "because we could") but alas, they didn't get into the plot at all. The commentary focused on 3 main topics:
1. the locations
2. the difficulty of filming in Florida weather and mosquitoes
3. that was about it, actually.
I did learn the interesting bit of trivia that cinematographers sometimes use big helium balloons containing an incandescent light inside to simulate natural light: 6' diameter balloons for interior shots and 16' diameter balloons outdoors to create moonlight. That's about the only thing I learned from the commentary. I guess I should be glad they didn't get into trying to explain the plot, because all too often they end up simply describing the plot, which is insanely boring.
I can't say more about the movie without getting spoilerish, so the rest is behind a cut.
After realizing that the commentary wasn't going to discuss the plot at all, I thought it over and decided that the twists do all hang together, but they aren't necessary for the movie to work. If Neve Campbell's character is such a criminal mastermind, then she could have figured out a way to frame Denise Richards without involving Kevin Bacon, which would have removed a whole layer of needless complexity. She could have planted enough evidence to lead the honest cop, Bacon's partner, to the wrong conclusion. Which in fact, looked like it would have happened anyway if Bacon hadn't jumped in and killed Richards.
Which by the way, was the only plot twist I caught as it was happening. The shots are in the wrong order, they don't match Bacon's story. I'm not sure if I was supposed to catch that or not. It seemed pretty obvious at the time, but then that would make the reveal in the Bahamas kind of pointless. So I'm not sure. (I missed the clue that Campbell is shown reading Death on the Installment Plan by Celine, a book way above the level one would expect from "poor dumb Susie," which should have tipped me off that she wasn't what she appeared to be.)
Also, Campbell and Dillon suggest that they wouldn't have killed Bacon if he hadn't killed Richards, but that's clearly false. At that point, with what Bacon knows, they have no choice. That's another body someone might go looking for someday, which seems like a sloppy mistake for Susie Toller, Super Genius. Not that I expect a perfectly rational plot from this movie; that would be missing the point in a major way.
Also also, Neve Campbell wears a terrible wig at the end.
Also also also, I really did not need to see full frontal Kevin Bacon.
And those are the only complaints I have about this movie. It really is a lot of fun.
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