Wild Things (1998)

August 4, 2022 12:30 AM

When teen-socialite Kelly Van Ryan and troubled bad girl Suzie Toller accuse guidance counselor Sam Lombardo of rape, he's suspended by the school, rejected by the town, and fighting to get his life back. One cop suspects conspiracy, but nothing is what it seems... (starring Bill Murray!)
posted by geoff. (8 comments total)

Great movie, camp and intelligent. Seriously underrated and deserves a much higher rating than it has on Rotten Tomatoes (63%). Roger Ebert praised it giving it 3 stars: ""Wild Things" is lurid trash, with a plot so twisted they're still explaining it during the closing titles. It's like a three-way collision between a softcore sex film, a soap opera and a B-grade noir. I liked it."

The beginning is a bit weak but once the plot picks up it is a serious thriller. Even the sex scenes don't seem gratuitous and just kind of fit. There's definite gay overtones (at one point you see Kevin Bacon full frontal in the shower), and I was convinced it was going to show Kevin Bacon and Matt Dillon embrace, but alas it was 1998.
posted by geoff. at 6:57 AM on August 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

I saw this movie a very long time ago and I don't remember much, but my favorite thing about it is that I rented it from my favorite indie video store and all around the case, an employee had written, "plot twist plot twist plot twist plot twist plot twist plot twist," and I am still laughing about it.
posted by tangosnail at 7:38 AM on August 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

I was convinced it was going to show Kevin Bacon and Matt Dillon embrace

I feel like at some point I read an article about the making of this which did confirm that such a scene was originally written. But maybe I'm just making that up in my head. I do think it's the one flaw in this otherwise perfectly bonkers movie, that Dillon and Bacon don't actually kiss when they are clearly supposed to.
posted by dnash at 7:43 AM on August 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

"Wild Things" is one of my favorite movies. It is a guilty pleasure. I have both the rated and unrated versions sitting on my shelf. For a little nineties neo-noir/exploitation flick, everything about "Wild Things" is first class, from the writing to the acting to the production. "Wild Things" is a gem of a movie that I would recommend to anyone who likes twisty plots and dark humor, and doesn't mind gratuitous sex.
posted by Stuka at 8:01 AM on August 4, 2022 [2 favorites]

It did! So looking this up and researching this more Wild Things is actually kind of a gay icon of a movie, I would never have guessed. I found it so interesting I decided to make it into a Metafilter post
posted by geoff. at 8:11 AM on August 4, 2022 [5 favorites]

I rented this, oh so many years ago, thinking it would be a trashy fun movie to watch...and boy did I get more than I expected. I felt it was really clear that Dillon/Bacon/Campbell/Richards were a four-way bisexual relationship by the end of the film, so seeing comments here that it wasn't explicit in the movie makes me wonder what I was picking up on or if I just read something about the film that made it clear. Anyways, I still remember being shocked as the twists start piling up as I was not at all expecting it in what this movie appeared to be at first blush. Good film.
posted by nubs at 9:15 AM on August 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

I remember hearing the story that Kevin Bacon had a no-nudity clause in his contract but because he was also a producer, he opted not to sue himself.
posted by slimepuppy at 11:05 AM on August 4, 2022

My wife and I went to the multiplex to see something else, but it was sold out. Unsure what else to do, we asked the ticket guy who simply said, "Wild Things is on now." So in we went knowing nothing at all about the film - not even having seen a poster - and it made it all very memorable.
posted by jjderooy at 4:10 PM on August 4, 2022 [1 favorite]