Sophia's Cinematic Inspirations

I loved Cruel Intentions on so many levels. One of those levels was named Ryan Phillippe, a deliciously vapid piece of eye-candy.

That said, my primary draw to this film was Kathryn-- a woman after my own heart. Kathryn plots to turn an innocent freshman first bi and the then slutty, all as a way to wreak vengeance on an old enemy. She places a bet with her own brother, where she herself is the prize if he wins. Her mind-games cause her brother to first fall in love, then reject his true love in favor of Kathryn-- only so that Kathryn can mock him for it. To finish him off, she claims her brother is abusing her, then uses her charms to incite a man into murdering the brother.

I adore Kathryn's dialogue. It's both diabolical and whimsical. When her brother returns to her side after rejecting his true love, she mocks him. "Let's toast to your triumph over Annette", he says, only to have her evilly reply,"Silly rabbit! My triumph isn't over her. It's over you. You were very much in love with her. And you're still in love with her. But it amused me to make you ashamed of it. You gave up on the first person you ever loved because I threatened your reputation. Don't you get it? You're just a toy, Sebastian. A little toy I like to play with."

Kathryn is a definite inspiration in the way she destroys. I've never met my male counterpart, a guy who could do the things I can do-- but I know if I did-- I would HAVE to destroy him, and make sure it was crystal clear that he knew I was his superior.

Much of Cruel Intentions is somewhat two-dimensional, making it a little difficult to suspend disbelief at times. But I _can_ attest to how realistic the Cecile subplot is. Taking an innocent girl who is both attracted to you and looks up to you and molding her like clay-- it's SO easy. I've mocked evangelical christian women into becoming utter sluts, and I've guilt tripped trailer-trash Jerry-Springer-esque women into becoming veritable nuns. I've turned straight girls into dykes, and dykes into straight girls. Once you see someone who looks at you with that "look" in their eyes-- that mixture of admiration and desire-- the rest is easy. Positive reinforcement when they grow in the way you want, negative reinforcement when they resist-- soon, like a little bonsai tree, they've grown into the form you want. And they usually never even know why the change occurred-- they have no idea that you chose their new form for them.

I'll only briefly touch on this film. By and large, I think it's a pathetic rip-off of the original. It turns out it's not even an actual film-- it's a pilot for a TV show that got rejected, and so they released it as a DVD to try to make some of the money back. Mostly one big yawn. The original was brilliant-- the "sequel" just attempts to satiate a male audience by showing them breasts. "How droll", as the old saying goes.

There is, however, one scene that I love, which made the "film" worth watching. Kathryn has seduced one of her teachers and is now blackmailing him. He remains utterly in love with her. The portly older man pours his heart out to her,"Oh, my God, I'm a mess. You're always one step ahead of me. I don't know what to do anymore. It's a dirty old man's catch-22. I'm falling apart. My wife doesn't turn me on anymore, my kids hate me. I should just quit."

She cuts him off,"Stop blubbering, Steve". He complies and professes his love: "I worship you, Kathryn."

She looks down at him and confidently says,"Worship works best on your knees, Steve." He falls to his knees and begins to kiss her feet and ankles, loudly making sounds of gratitude and pleasure. Again, she chastises him: "Please be quiet. I'm trying to imagine I'm with someone attractive." Poor Steve pathetically offers his apologies-- both for being loud and for not being someone who is attractive.

Despite being in a bad film, it's a GREAT scene.

I _adore_ Rose McGowan's character in this film. I honestly wish she existed, so she and I could compare notes and join forces. Serious fun.

Courtney is a "Satan in heels". You know the drill-- she leads the super-popular clique that everyone worships: "The beautiful ones. The flawless four. Everyone wanted to be them." So what makes Jawbreaker different from Heathers or Meangirls? Courtney. She is overtly kinky, and clearly enjoys humiliating boys and women alike.

Particularly of note is a scene where Courtney invites the gorgeous jock into her bedroom. He partially undresses, only to find her returning with an ice cream treat which, she informs us, is known as a "big stick". Courtney then proceeds to make her boy suck and lick the "big stick". She makes him shout aloud "I like it". She taunts him by saying "Of course you do-- you're on the wrestling team". She promises to go down on him if only he'll demonstrate the technique on the "big stick". In desperation, he licks at the dessert with a fevered pitch-- only to have a doorbell interrupt them before she can fulfill her end of the bargain.

Pouting, he begs her "Don't go!!!". She turns to him and commands: "Don't come...".

I laughed and laughed at this scene. I watched it more than once. I showed the scene to a friend, and we laughed at it together. The chemistry is perfect-- the boy in particular really nails the desperate whine of a boy who's denied sex. I adore it. My only regret is that I didn't get to see it in theaters when it first came out-- I think I would have found the film depiction of such a "me" character very... validating.

So, there's a really funny story to this film. One of my hobbies growing up was making adult men become obsessed with me. Teachers and cops were my favorite, but I also had fun with making my friends' parents become hooked on me.

When you're so young, it's quite a rush to be able to control a full-grown man. And when it's your friend's father, well that's just icing on the cake. Because then you always know you have a little "edge" on your friend, a little unspoken secret that you both know about-- her dad wants you.

To get to the heart of the matter-- when I was a Sophomore in high school, I used to go spend weekends with a friend who had gone to the same middle school as I had, although we went on to different high schools. Every weekend, she and her dad would drive a full hour just to pick me up and take me back to their house for the weekend. The dad was utterly crazy about me.

Part of our weekend ritual involved an outing to the local cinema. Every Saturday, I, my friend, and her dad would go to see a film of my choosing. I liked art films the best because I was the only one who enjoyed them. And then, one weekend, we saw American Beauty-- an amazing film in which the image of a hot cheerleader completely changes a man's whole life-- making him feel alive again for the first time. The cheerleader, a friend of the man's daughter, takes advantage of the situation, lording it over her friend.

The ride back to their house afterward was hilarious-- nobody said anything, it was eerily quiet, because all three of us knew the film was similar to how the dad thought about me. I mean it was dead silent in the car. Anyway, right before we got home, the dad stopped at a 7-11 to get some cigarettes, and he asked us if we wanted him to grab anything while he was in there. My friend said "no". I responded,"Um, no thanks, Al. I don't really need anything-- unless you maybe want to get me some rose petals for when I take a bath later tonight."

The result was sublime. Poor daddy's face got really red, and he just went into the store without saying a word. Back in the car with my friend, I howled and howled laughing at my own wit. My friend looked as if she was about to cry, which just made me cackle all the more.

So Mena Suvari's character in American Beauty will always have a special place in my heart. Admittedly, in the film, she turns out to be totally fake-- a boring person just pretending to be powerful. But that's alright-- her character was fun while it lasted, and I got a wonderful memory out of it.

Kathleen Turner plays "Matty"-- a woman whose temperature runs around 100 degrees. Yes, the film's title comes from a ridiculous pun: Matty is just hotter than everyone else. In Ebert's words, Matty is a woman who is "so sexually confident that we can believe her lover could be dazed into doing almost anything for her." When she first meets pathetic lawyer Ned Racine, she mocks his weaknesses with the classic line: "You're not too smart, are you? I like that in a man." Matty is a married woman, but that doesn't stop Ned's pursuit. When he hits on her in a bar, she agrees to go home with him, but insists on very visibly slapping him across the face first, "just for show".

In another excellent scene, Matty locks Ned out of the house, but stares at him through the window, her eyes commanding him to find a way inside. In desperation, he picks up a chair and throws it through a window, as she clearly beams at his utter desire for her.

These things always end badly for the poor man. Soon, Ned is murdering Matty's husband, so she can collect the insurance money and they can be together. And it's not long before Ned finds himself in prison, paying for Matty's crimes, while she is rich and famous, living in an exotic land.

In terms of sheer abuse in film, this is about as good as it gets. So good, I absolutely refuse to spoil this film for anyone by telling them what happens in it. Just trust me-- this is a wonderful, wonderful film. If you want to glimpse evil, watch this film. If you want to understand me and how I work and what motivates me, See This Film!