I’d previously watched about half of this film, as I fell asleep during it and had to be filled-in as to what I’d missed. My memory of it was therefore unsurprisingly hazy. It’s one of those films that I think was probably quite cool and a little shocking at the time it came out, but now feels a little dated, slightly pretentious and a bit silly at times. But it was still weirdly enjoyable.
Here are the thoughts I had whilst watching it:
- What else do I recognise her from? Maybe it’s just this.
- I’d not remembered this getting so disturbing so quickly. Yikes.
- Hee hee, James Van Der Beek. What’s he up to these days?
- Ooh, I’d forgotten Ian Somerhalder’s in this. Yay!
- Creepy Van Der Beek
- Wow, Fred Savage. What happened to him?
- Clare Kramer!
- Bateman? Is he meant to be related to Patrick? *googles* Ah, his brother. Makes sense.
- Ew, don’t do it
- Why do people like him?
- Hee hee, he mentioned Patrick
- Yep, he seems like a Dick
- Wiener dog!!
- Ian Somerhalder dancing in his pants to George Michael? Yes, please.
- Do parties like this actually happen at American colleges?
- Oh god, really? Wait, who are you?
- Really??
- Ew
- She has the worst taste in men
- Oh, Paul
- I thought my DVD had broken for a second then
This was another film I hadn’t seen before, and another that I rented via Amazon Video.
As it started I kind of got the impression that it was trying to be shocking and edgy almost just for the sake of it, and I did find it a little contrived at times. I wasn’t overly convinced by James Van Der Beek as an evil sociopath either, he didn’t come off terribly naturally in the role to me. That’s not to say I didn’t like it though, I did. I liked how most of the main characters were unlikeable (except for Lauren, I did like her – Sean and Victor though? Seriously, she could do so much better for herself!), and thought it made for an interesting dynamic in the film, as I didn’t feel any real sympathy when things went badly for them.
I thought the narrative structure was interesting too, telling the story backwards/using flashbacks was quite effective for me. Overall, I really liked this and would recommend it.