Welcome to Screen Gems, Welcome to Screen Gems, our weekend dive into queer and queer-adjacent titles of the past that deserve a watch or a rewatch.
The Kinky: Cruel Intentions
How many 90s teens had their first sexual awakening whilst watching Cruel Intentions? Director Roger Kumble’s adaptation of the scandalous French novel Les Liaisons Dangerous updates the story of horny, scheming French aristocrats to horny, scheming overprivileged teens in a private school in Manhattan. Ryan Phillippe stars as Sebastian, an arrogant, rich snob who has made a hobby of seducing young, virginal girls at school. Egging him on is his step-sister Kathryn (Sarah Michelle Gellar), an equally sadistic woman with whom Sebastian has an unrequited sexual connection, and Blaine (Joshua Jackson) a gay pothead who rejoices in affairs with the school’s closet cases. The three have their sexy schemes interrupted by the arrival of Annette (Reese Witherspoon), a proud virgin who preaches the evils of premarital sex to her peers. When Kathryn bets that Sebastian can’t seduce Annette, a dark, downward spiral begins.
Cruel Intentions broke new ground for its frankness in dealing with teen sex (including graphic nudity) and teenage gayness (lesbianic scenes between Gellar and Blair are also a riot). Today, the cast list reads like a whose-who of soon-to-be stars: Phillippe, Gellar and Witherspoon lead a cast that includes Jackson, Selma Blair, Tara Reid, Sean Patrick Thomas, and Eric Mabius alongside showbiz veterans Louise Fletcher, Swoozie Kurtz and Christine Baranski. We speculate that the litany of talent involved, along with strong source material, helped elevate Cruel Intentions above other teen fare into the realm of cult classic. Gellar and Phillippe do some of their best big-screen work as the movie’s villains, and Phillippe’s posterior reminds us why it became one of the most discussed stars of the latter 90s.
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Gay Thomas
Ryan Phillipe became a star in I Know What You Did Last Summer in 1997 and Studio 54 in 1998, well before Cruel Intentions in 1999.
Doctor Benway
He doesn’t have a big role in “I know what you did last summer”. And I don’t think Studio 54 was a famous big movie at the time. It’s really Cruel Intentions that put a spotlight on him.
ducdebrabant
Relive it how? Where’s the picture?
winemaker
So where’s Ryan Philippes awesome ass? We keep hearing about it, where is it, let people be the judge of just what an awesome ass this guy’s got. The next time, present evidence
Josh447
Agreed. Court dismissed!
Goosecurls
You can do a image search of “Ryan Phillippe” “Cruel Intentions” “nude” to see a screencap of a shot of his behind.
Jared MacBride
It was a 99th percentile ass. Well worth grazing the web a little bit to see.
michel_banen
….and he STILL looks great today !
Troysky
@Michel banen you are right…..his ass is more muscular today – he was on a talk show about 3-5 years ago and turned around to show it off…amazing actually…. yeah, back on topic I paused the EXTREMELY quick and stupidly far away shot of his ass in cruel intentions’ dvd, back in the day. Heard multiple times that in his early hollywood days he was very promiscuous bisexually and really didn’t care (like Leo DiC…).
Jussie_Racist_Clown
Meh. He’s nothing special. Not 20 years ago, not today. He’s got a distinctively affected voice. Meh.
Wheelerman
Ryan became a star for me playing gay teen Billy Douglas on One Life To Live in 1992. Groundbreaking gay story for the time.