Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Slaking a thirst for dangerous games, Kathryn challenges her stepbrother, Sebastian, to deflower their headmaster's daughter before the summer ends. If he succeeds, the prize is the chance to bed Kathryn. But if he loses, Kathryn will claim his most prized possession.
Cruel Intentions is a sleek, entertaining modernization of Les Liaisons Dangereuses transplanted to Manhattan prep school culture. The plot is engaging and moves with confidence, though it's entirely dependent on its source material's bones. The acting is a mixed bag — Ryan Phillippe and Sarah Michelle Gellar commit with real energy, especially Gellar who delivers a genuinely sharp villainous performance, but some supporting work is thinner. Cinematography is functional and TV-polished rather than distinctive; it's competently shot without any particular visual artistry. Novelty gets a modest bump for the audacity of its teen-soap reframing of a classic French novel, which gives it a distinctly '90s flavor that has aged into something almost iconic — but it's still fundamentally an adaptation. The ending lands emotionally with satisfying comeuppance, though it's fairly telegraphed.