Cruel Intentions

Another high school movie from 1999 was Cruel Intentions, which is kind of like a school play version of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, set not in a realistic setting of suburban high schools, but instead in the upper-class world of prep schools.

Les Liaisons Dangereuses had been made into two films just a few years prior, Dangerous Liaisons and Valmont. The former was a very good film, the latter so-so, and Cruel Intentions is not as good as either, but has its moments. Though there is no nudity, it has some of the most sexually charged dialogue of any movie involving high school kids. At one point Sarah Michelle Gellar just blurts out, "I want to fuck!"

Ryan Phillippe plays Valmont, a suave student who has many sexual conquests, but has never been able to bed his step-sister, Gellar, who is a master manipulator and presents one face to adults, another to her contemporaries (she sniffs cocaine out of a cross necklace). When he sets his sights on his ultimate conquest, a self-proclaimed virgin, Reese Witherspoon, Gellar bets him he can't do it. If she wins, she gets his car. If he wins, well, "you can stick it wherever you want," she coos. He's in.

In the meantime, Phillippe does Gellar a favor by seducing a sweet but naive girl, Selma Blair, who is in love with her music teacher. If you've seen Dangerous Liaisons these characters all have counterparts. Blair, who was actually the oldest member of the cast, steals her scenes with a klutzy charm.

Cruel Intentions did not receive great reviews, but does hold up in this post-Gossip Girl era, where the world of super-rich prep school kids has taken on a kind of mythology. None of it is believable, but it does have a decadent fun. In the beginning of the movie Phillippe parks in a no-parking zone, and we're led to believe the cop is intimidated to do nothing. I would think in real life that cop would take great pleasure in having the vehicle towed.

It is also interesting to see how the young actors proceeded with their careers. Gellar was in the midst of her run on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Witherspoon, with her second movie of 1999 following Election, has become a major star. She married Phillippe, but their careers went in opposite directions. The director, Roger Kumble, did not go on to bigger and better things, directing one of the worst movies I've ever seen, The Sweetest Thing.