Film

Wild Things (1998)

Director: John McNaughton

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Lombardo (Dillon) is 'Educator of the Year' at Florida's Blue Bay high school, a popular teacher with a taste for the good life. When Kelly (Richards), one of his students, accuses him of rape, the police don't give much credence to a rich bitch on heat. But when punky low class Suzie (Campbell) echoes her claims, Lombardo only has two-bit lawyer Ken Bowden (Murray) standing between him and jail. For about an hour, this shapes up promisingly: it's so blatant, you know it's got to be a tease. The director zooms in on wet T-shirts in slo-mo and maps out the social and sexual hierarchies with glee: think John Waters crossed with John Hughes. When the film-makers pull the rug out from under us, it's a doozy of a twist. Too bad there's still an hour to go, because then all bets are off. McNaughton double and triple-crosses the audience with such reckless abandon, it's impossible to care any more. This is one of those puzzle movies that's quite intriguing while it's feigning superficiality - and truly funny when Bill Murray is around - but really dumb once it thinks it's being smart.

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