10 Massively Underrated 1990s Movie Performances

Roger Kumble’s Cruel Intentions is a film that requires, to put it mildly, a little more suspension of disbelief than you might remember. Yes, it’s a sexy, twisty dramedy starring a cast of upper crust NY teens who screw each other over in between bouts of simply screwing each other, but the campy tone is more Gossip Girl than Rules of Attraction, and upon a re-watch there’s an adorable goofiness to how over-the-top the entire enterprise is.

Any teenager who can relate to Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Biblical downfall by the movie’s denouement should probably be in therapy, but the film is nonetheless a fun, silly bit of escapism, and the tone is captured perfectly by then-rising star Reese Witherspoon.

As the very publicly chaste object of Ryan Philippe’s affections, Witherspoon is charming, funny, and just extra enough to convince without jumping into wholesale goofiness (cough Selma Blair cough). It’s a performance which won over Philippe as well as the audience, and the couple’s onscreen chemistry crackles despite the corny and overwrought dialogue they’re burdened with.

The result turns a potentially cringeworthy teen drama into a witty, light-as-a-feather guilty pleasure thanks to a winning central turn from the future megastar.