Wild Things (John McNaughton, 1998)

 

Now neo-noir movies with a twist at the end, is something that comes by-the-numbers from Hollywood. Twists are a great thing for a movie, there is no doubt about that, it makes the film exciting and delicious, but sometimes I think that there is also some kind of recipe that screenwriters follow that says "make sure you have a twist at the end". Quite probably one of the most mesmerizing twists that comes into my mind is that in Fight Club. And another one that worked perfectly and made the movie to explode was in Body Double. But I can think of a bunch of twists that were for the sake of the twist, because the movie had nothing else to offer really. Wild Things is a film notorious for its twists. I would say that it's notorious also for the sex trio that it has in there, but I think that the endless twists of the movie make it more famous than its sex scene.

Now, some might say after the end of the movie, that this was a ridiculous film that took one thing and it took it to the extreme limits. Twist upon twist upon twist. Clearly the movie has nothing else to offer and plays with that like a spoiled baby, they will say. Well my opinion is that I don't think that this is the case here. Yes, the movie makes a non-stop use of twists, but for some crazy reason and that is a screenplay attribute they fucking work. The movie consumes you with all this unexpected turns of events. And you clearly find yourself wanting more of that crazy story that has unfolded in front of your eyes. To make a twist at the end is a relatively easy task, but to fill a movie with twists, well that's a bit more difficult, I must say, and that is the writer in me speaking now. I always admired writers like Raymond Chandler in how the build their mystery. In Philip Marlowe's mysteries Chandler opens up a dozen of events and in the end, like a true magician that he was, he combines them all to a linear, perfectly reasonable story. That is a gift, a precious gift. And a gift that I have worked very hard to even come relatively close to it as a writer myself. Making up crazy stories is not an easy task, I assure about that. So in the movie, to make a film that continuously breaks to pieces the story that has already build, shows definitely a charismatic screenwriter. And in that way Wild Things, a film that has been trashed by many as lurid and ridiculous, is, in reality, a movie that has some power and some charisma.