Wild Things

Director: John McNaughton
Cast:
Kevin Bacon
Neve Campbell
Matt Dillon
Bill Murray

Okay, let's get some stuff out of the way first: yes, this movie is bad. Yes, it's also tremendously fun to watch. No, you don't see Neve Campbell naked, but yes, there is sort of a threesome love scene that involves champagne and a motel room. That alone is about as much information as you need for "Wild Things"—anything more, and you're just sweating the details.

But I'll continue for those of you still reading...Matt Dillon plays a high school guidance counselor who is accused of raping one of his students (Denise Richards, exhibiting mating characteristics usually experienced in National Geographic specials on early primates). And even though she's a sworn enemy, Neve Campbell, the local outcast who dresses like the keyboardist for Marilyn Manson, says he raped her as well. But she may also have info that exonerates him, and who better to find out than Kevin Bacon, eerily stiff as a Florida cop looking suspiciously like a Mormon missionary.

To say anymore would give away the daffily labyrinthine plot where nobody is who they seem to be; the most innocent are the most vile, the most pathetic are the most cunning. You can see the screenwriters writing this thing in a messy room full of index cards—one gets the impression that they wrote a mystery and then shuffled the deck randomly with a high-powered electric leaf blower. There are even plot twists during the credits if you can believe it. Incredibly stupid, campy as "Rocky Horror" and featuring two good catfights, "Wild Things" is a better time than you can imagine.

—Ian Williams

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