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I really want to see this movie. :D I am one sick puppy. review from nytimes
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January 18, 2008
Things They Dont Teach in Any Dental School
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
Published: January 18, 2008
Teenage horror-movie spoof, John Waters parody, No Nukes protest movie, twisted sex-education film, quasi-feminist fable, outrageous stunt: Mitchell Lichtensteins clever, crude comedy, Teeth, is all these and more.
Imagine Candy Christian, the title character of Candy, Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenbergs satirical novel, as a contemporary mutant teen angel unknowingly afflicted with the mythical condition known as vagina dentata (a toothed vagina). In Teeth Dawn (Jess Weixler), that castration myths unfortunate embodiment, is a devout Christian who lectures on abstinence and leads the Promise, a group of teenagers who have pledged chastity until marriage. They wear red rings to certify their purity and go on group dates to shield one another from temptation. Dawns boyfriend, Tobey (Hale Appleman), has adopted the pledge, but reluctantly.
Ms. Weixler, whose performance earned her a special jury prize at last years Sundance Film Festival, suggests a younger, dewy Heather Graham. As Dawn breaks her pledge under fierce duress, her body responds involuntarily, and she wreaks traumatic damage to the unwelcome male intruders. But even after she knows how her body can react, she retains a quality of wide-eyed naïveté, as though that couldnt really be happening.
The verdant tranquillity of the sleepy suburban town where Dawn and her surly younger stepbrother, Brad, have grown up is marred only by the belching cooling towers of a nearby nuclear power plant. Now and then the camera peers over the brilliant foliage with a smirking sense of mischief to observe these twin towers releasing ominous black plumes into the atmosphere. The movie implies that radiation is responsible for Dawns condition, not to mention her stepmothers declining health and Brads satanic inclinations; everyone in the family may have mutated.
Brad is played by the heavy-lidded, ebony-eyebrowed John Hensley of Nip/Tuck, whose character on that show, Matt McNamara, attempted to circumcise himself in an early episode. Given the knowing attitude of Teeth, Mr. Lichtenstein, an actor turned writer-director, may have intentionally cast him as a sly reference.
The movie is filled with humorous winks. The grotto by a waterfall to which Dawn repairs for steamy love scenes that culminate in bloodcurdling howls of pain recalls a similar location in Splendor in the Grass, the 1961 melodrama in which chastity and sexual frustration drive Natalie Woods character into a mental hospital.
Dawns horrified awakening arrives when she and Tobey visit the waterfall unaccompanied, and one thing leads to another. When he forces himself on her, her body responds savagely, and he flees in agony leaving a part of himself behind. The distraught heroine scours the Internet for information and learns about the myth she incarnates. In the movies funniest scene she undergoes a gynecological examination in which the doctor, played by Josh Pais as a bossy, leering know-it-all, receives an excruciating surprise.
As much as you applaud its satiric nerve, once Teeth has demonstrated how far it will go, its joke becomes repetitive. Before the movies over, the screen is littered with severed pieces of the male anatomy, one of which is snapped up by a dog. Ho-hum. The problem with shockers, comic or otherwise, is that once the coup de grâce is delivered, there are no big surprises left.
Teeth is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It has sex scenes and prosthetic anatomical parts.
TEETH
Opens in New York and Los Angeles on Friday.
Written and directed by Mitchell Lichtenstein; director of photography, Wolfgang Held; edited by Joe Landauer; music by Robert Miller; production designer, Paul Avery; produced by Joyce Pierpoline and Mr. Lichtenstein; released by Roadside Attractions. In Manhattan at the Village East, Second Avenue at 12th Street, East Village. Running time: 1 hour 27 minutes.
WITH: Jess Weixler (Dawn), John Hensley (Brad), Josh Pais (Dr. Godfrey), Hale Appleman (Tobey), Ashley Springer (Ryan), Vivienne Benesch (Kim), Lenny Von Dohlen (Bill), Nicole Swahn (Melanie), Julia Garro (Gwen) and Adam Wagner (Phil).
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Teeth
Jan 18 2008, 10:05 PM
