How Dare You!

Good morning Consumers. This is Please Consume, the film newsletter that loves you more than Ben Affleck loves being from Boston.

This is what we’ve got for today 👇️

• We get a little spicy this week 😘 

• It’s full-on spooky season. A horror sequel takes control.

• All the latest news and notes from this weekend.

Let’s get rolling…

Fair Play just hit Netflix. That gives us an amazing opportunity to touch on a genre that’s all but dead.

The Erotic Thriller.

Get ready. It’s about to get hot in here.

In the Cut (2003)

Written by Caleb Madden

Erotic thrillers are a genre that I typically don’t traverse very often. It just hasn’t been something that I have often enjoyed. So when we got the assignment for this I figured I would pick one of the more controversial erotic thrillers in the genre.

Yep, I’m doing In the Cut.

How Dare You!

When In the Cut was released, its reception was mixed to say the least. Critically, the movie was panned by nearly every major publication, and viewers really didn’t know what to do with this movie. Even Please Consume’s very own Tyler Clark doesn’t like this movie (you are wrong Tyler)!

Many of the critiques leveled at In the Cut surrounded the film’s star Meg Ryan. Ryan’s career up to this point consists mostly of starring in romantic comedies. And not just any romantic comedies, but probably the biggest romantic comedies of the 90’s! Films like When Harry met Sally, You’ve got Mail, and Sleepless in Seattle. These are fun quirky and lighthearted movies that end with the main characters falling in love. However, In the Cut is a dark and deeply sexual movie that shows Meg Ryan in a very different light. Viewers left the theater feeling like their perfect rom-com princess Meg Ryan had been murdered.

The second biggest problem people had with this movie was the plotting and the story itself. On its face In the Cut claims to be a gritty and dark crime drama following a series of gruesome murders in New York City. However, this movie is actually a story of a woman wrestling with the dissonance between the threatening and attractive nature of the men in her life. This leads to a movie that on its surface is very messy and muddled.

Campion The Champion

The erotic thriller genre is one that is ruled by men. I’m not saying that most erotic thrillers are bad or unsubtle because of this, but it does lead to some erotic thrillers feeling that they are more interested in making women objects rather than characters. However, the director of In the Cut, Jane Campion, is not a man. As such, she is far less interested in making a movie that objectifies and oversexualizes women. Instead, she made a movie that is in conversation with the genre itself.

This movie’s sexual tension is unbearable. Every single scene in this movie is overflowing with sexual tension between every single character. Especially between Frannie (Meg Ryan) and Detective Malloy (Mark Ruffalo). Det. Malloy is aloof and does whatever he wants (like every cop ever) not to mention we are given reason to believe he is a serial killer. Yet, Frannie finds herself hopelessly attracted to him. This tension is what makes this movie so fascinating within the erotic thriller genre.

What makes movies like Basic Instinct and Eyes Wide Shut so hard to look away from? Why is Frannie attracted to men like detective Malloy (a dark and brooding asshole with a sensitive streak)? Why are all men horrible sex crazed freaks? All of these questions are what Campion is trying to wrestle with and it rules!

In the Cut is a movie that takes the male gazeness of erotic thrillers and uses it to create a riveting and deeply sexual movie that is probably one of the best erotic thrillers ever. Check it out!

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