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Cinema Intentions


I received an e-mail from one of the theater chains, announcing an upcoming screening of Cruel Intentions, to celebrate its 20th anniversary. The movie, originally released in March of 1999, and starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe and Reese Witherspoon (at the height of their popularity), screams '90s to me. Perhaps it is just the moment in my life when I saw it, or the people I knew then? Regardless, seeing the e-mail about it's 20th anniversary re-release induced a wave of nostalgia that gave me pause.

The screening of Cruel Intentions in 1999 is a particularly wistful memory, as one of us is no longer here. There were four of us -- Jared, Karmen, Amanda and myself -- and I think we may have actually watched it at a theater in Bloomington, where Amanda was living at the time. I remember it being a fun occasion, mostly because we seemed to enjoy one another's company, and the movie was a tad ridiculous. We laughed at it, sometimes because the movie had some genuine humor, but mostly because, well, it was kind of bad. Still, a twenty-something Ryan Phillippe, hot off his turn in 54, made it more than bearable.

Amanda and I remain close friends. Our relationship is one that I cherish. I haven't seen or spoken with Karmen in almost twenty years. Jared and I reconnected on Facebook (as so many often do). Unfortunately, he passed away from cancer a little over three years ago. Not even forty, he was far too young to have died, and the world is an emptier place without him in it. I've no idea where Karmen is, but hope that she is doing well.

As many of you are aware, I love movies, for many reasons, but one of them is sometimes the experience of watching them. If it's the right mix of people, then the viewing a film can be an event all its own. It's one reason I'm rather partial to Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, even though, objectively, it is a crap piece of cinema. I had fun watching it with the people I was at the theater with. Same goes for Cruel Intentions. Seeing it, all those years ago, has always been a fond memory, and the e-mail about its anniversary return to theaters served as a madeleine for remembering that occasion, when all four of us were younger, and healthy, and alive, having fun watching a silly film.


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