Review: Wild Things (1998)

I'm not sure if Wild Things is as clever as it thinks it is, but it sure is fun. This trash masterpiece from the late 1990s feels like a Cinemax movie that's been given millions of dollars and the best resources that Hollywood can buy. Deliberately campy and full of more twists and turns than an attraction at a Florida water park, this neo-noir serves up backstabbing, deception, and eroticism with a candy coating that distracts from a convoluted plot that requires "deleted" scenes during the end credits so we can actually make sense of what we've just seen. Not that anyone minds, since they movie delivers what it promises on the poster. This is something of an ensemble piece, with newcomer Denise Richards as our main attraction, 80s hearthrobs Matt Dillon and Kevin Bacon, post- Scream Neve Campbell (who seems out of her depth in such tawdry waters), and Bill Murray all sharing the screen. Of course, the main talking point with Wild Things is the nudity, both fr