The Crush (1993)
He thought it was just a crush. He was dead wrong.
Starring: Alicia Silverstone, Cary Elwes, Jennifer Rubin, Kurtwood Smith & Amber Benson
Director: Alan Shapiro
Written by: Alan Shapiro
Released: April 2, 1993
Budget: $6 million
Box office: $13.6 million
Distributed: Warner Bros.
I’d never seen this film before, but I do enjoy a love-crazed obsession thriller. There’s something about watching a character go down a dark, twisted and delusional rabbit hole that they can’t climb out of. We’ve had so many over the years. Most of them are not very good and almost always, not depicting females in the best light. Using the “hyper emotional = crazy bitch” trope to scare men. Well, what happens when you throw a teen girl into the mix. How does that switch up the fear?
Adrian Forrester is clearly positioned in the film as a lolita - “a young girl who has a very sexual appearance or behaves in a very sexual way”; as well as a femme fatale - “a woman who is very attractive in a mysterious way, usually leading men into danger or causing their destruction”. Adrian uses her innocent charm to manipulate people, uses her smarts to one up people and uses her obsession to eliminate people. What makes her scary isn’t that she’s emotional. It’s that she's highly intelligent and is playing chess with these characters and they don’t see they’ve been checkmated. Pushing the boundaries further and further with an innocent smile and chipper voice. What we come to find out via Cheyenne is that she’s done this before and by the end of the film, she’s planning to do it again. She’s mastered the art of manipulation. This is more of a thrilling game to feed her fantasies rather than about her actually gaining the prize of love. But don’t get it twisted. She is not all about the mind games. She’ll cause actual harm to your life physically. From her messing with Nick’s job, reputation and car, to breaking Cheyenne’s arm and almost killing Amy. The girl isn’t afraid to get things done.
Alicia Silverstone ate this role up and left no crumbs. I can’t believe this is her feature film debut. Ironically, she felt very experienced for her age. I read that she got emancipated so that she didn’t have to comply with the restrictive child labour laws. Which is a very adult thing to do. Perhaps these factors contributed towards why Adrian felt older and mature. Because Alicia was bringing her own maturity to the role. She also has a screen presence that is so alluring and captivating. The camera for sure loves her and I think she was the perfect casting choice for the role.
This movie made me uncomfortable though. I honestly felt pervy watching it. From the bathing suit shots, to the slow panning on her body and the undressing nude scenes. It felt inappropriate. That’s because it is. Which actually is what makes this film great. It plays with your own emotions as a viewer, especially if you’re an adult male, putting you at times in the position of Nick Eliot. Knowing it’s wrong, but still looking anyway. The fact that Alicia was fifteen turning sixteen while filming means that we are looking at the sexualization of an actual teen, which yes I know…a body double was used because she was underage, but the film is still implying it’s her, therefore we associate her with that nude body. It works for story purposes and once again puts Adrian in a position of power over Nick, turning the tables by making him the one in the troubling and compromising position. This kind of fucked with my mind, because I wondered if Nick was at fault since he’s the adult here and should’ve been more stern from the beginning or was it entirely Adrian’s fault, because she is clearly manipulating the situation to her benefit.
Cary Elwes as Nick Eliot is the nerdy but cute, sophisticated yet cool, blonde blue-eyed 28 year old poster boy that screams “All-American”. I think the audience is never supposed to look at him as a threat because of these traits and immediately is on his side when things go array. I mean look at that face. Could a man with sun-kissed golden hair and pillowy pink lips cause any harm? (cough cough, Jeffrey Dahmer). Even the mom was immediately trusting after showing him the guesthouse. Saying that she would feel better if there was someone around. Lady! You don’t know this man nor did you do any sort of background check yet you give away the fact that you and your husband aren’t at home most times. Ugh, rich people🙄. The guest house is very nice though and in a nice neighbourhood. So Nick scored a really great deal.
There’s a part where the name Adrian sounded dubbed over, because the pitch sounded distinctly different from Amy’s tone specifically. I thought I’d imagined it, but upon some research, they had to change the name from Darian to Adrian because the writer and director (who based the film off events of his own life) was sued by the girl for using her exact name.
Ok, side questions: how does a carousel 🎠stay in the attic without collapsing the whole ass roof? Aren’t those things heavy? Also, the shrine with a number of lit candles🕯️ never causes any fire hazard whatsoever…That ending with the punch though…what in the cartoon was that? That was a stunt that belonged to a Mortal Kombat movie🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I really liked this movie. More than I was expecting to. I think it’s definitely worth the watch for Alicia Silverstone alone, but her portrayal of Adrian and her descent into madness is captivating the entire film.
I give this film 4 out of 5 wasp nests.
Share your thoughts and rating below. Feel free to add any cringey crush stories of your own.
