Teeth – 2008
** Out of ****
Mitchell Lichtenstein’s Teeth, is a perfect and depressing example of how a truly unique concept can be disastrously executed and hindered by its own direction and vision. Not withholding the aforementioned exceptionally standalone approach to the film, this picture chooses to tell its tale in a very hateful and disjointed manor.
Teeth could be best caricaturized as a “horror/dramedy”, although the humour is at times almost too subtle to deserve such a title. It is most certainly quirky, with a clear dose of political and cultural allegory and the characters drive this tone creatively and confidently throughout the film. The problem lies with the fact that this tone does not drive the message anywhere gripping. We are entered into a small town, were we meet the subtly lovely Dawn (Jess Weixler) who is an activist for abstinence. She lives with her bedridden mother (Vivienne Benesch), stepfather (Lenny von Dohlen) and step-brother (Jon Hensley). Her parents both admire her strength and passion, which is more then they can say for their son Brad, who is a pot-smoking, cheating, violent sociopath. But when young Dawn begins to flirt with the notion of an amorous relationship (she has never even touched her nether regions) she finds something that nobody should ever discover about their self; Vagina Dentate. (Yes it is as literal as you may think; vaginal teeth) Her lower set of pearly whites, begin their sometimes accidental and sometimes purposeful reign of terror on her unsuspecting male companions. She tries to cope with the guilt, and tries to discover exactly what she can do to stop the mythological phenomenon.
As you can clearly see, this is not a cinematic concept that had been openly explored before, but this is unfortunately almost all of the charm of this film. Aside from the solid performances, it constantly journey’s into uneasiness and hatefulness, as if the directors main moral could no longer resist the restraints of the film, and finally erupts into a full scale vendetta against men. I am not trying to insinuate that women should be unable to express themselves in a bold fashion, but the way in which this material is presented, shifts to making the female lead into a very unlikable heroine.
The number of full frontal scrotal severance scenes almost defeat, and certainly outnumber that of Hostel: Part II, and as the narrative progresses, this hatred becomes less warranted and more frequent. Additionally, I believe I can safely assume very few people would actually enjoy watching mutilation of this nature, aside from actually finding some societal punctuality from it. Withholding these scenes, any paraxial or backhanded message that is trying to be presented is by no means fully realized and does not deliver any memorable or insightful morals. The message of abstinence is forfeited after the female lead engages, the moral of love and monogamy is overshadowed by pity for the male actors and the film itself is skewed by such a low-key and uneventful aura, that it fails to bring forth any prominent emotions but disgust.
It is most certainly a shame to see such a favourable and original concept presented to such little avail, despite strong performances and writing. As soon as the plot of this film was revealed to me I was intrigued, and viewing the end results I have no hesitation of labelling this picture the biggest disappointment of the year. In the end, Teeth, has about as much bite as an old man gnawing on a marshmallow and its lasting power leaves something to be desired. This less than toothsome film is a DVD rental at best, and simply is a disjointed and uneventful fable.
© 2008 Simon Brookfield
