The
Faculty (1998)
Kevin
Williamson's script finds rare moments in Robert Rodriguez's
film to entertain us with it's pop culture sensibilities.
It doesn't happen often enough, but luckily, the are
enough half-naked cute teenagers running around like
crazy to keep us into the film. That's what you get
here, a sci-fi rip-off of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers,"
MTV alt- rock tunes, a few pop culture references (including
the an allusion to the fact that this is a rip off of
"Snatchers" which was in fact a rip-off of Robert Heinlein's
"The Puppetmaster"), and lotsa cute, scantily-clad
teenagers. That's good enough for me.
If you dig guys, then you can choose between the reckless
abandoned masking brains supplied by Josh Hartnett,
the boy-next-door with a heart of gold brought forth
by Shawn Hatosy, or the wide-eyed naive nerd portrayed
by Elijah Wood. There's also rapper Usher among the
other cute young guys who pop up here and there for
a few minutes. For girl-watchers, there's the modelesque
beauty of Jordana Brewster, the innocent sweetness of
Laura Harris, or, for the more adventurous, the butch,
alt-rock, lezbo looks of Clea DuVall. If you dig the
older chicks, you can choose between Selma Hayek and
Famke Janssen as teachers in the high school which acts
as a backdrop for the film. Also around for the ride
are stalwarts like Piper Laurie, Christopher MacDonald,
Bebe Neuwirth, and Robert Patrick. And for fun you get
Summer Phoenix and Jon Abrahams as a fighting couple
and Jon Stewart as a geeky science teacher. There are
what amounts to little more than cameos by Harry Knowles
(Austin-based Internet movie geek), Wiley Wiggins (Austin
based young actor whose got skinny again), and Danny
Masterson (of TV's "That 70's show"). You know what?
Everybody does a pretty decent job. Even when the plot
gets kinda silly or convoluted, the actors work for
the benefit of the film.
Aw, it's really just a bunch of silly sci-fi fun. You
can't take it too seriously. There's teachers and aliens
and drugs and nudity and football and classrooms. It's
pretty standard fare. And Williamson knows it's just
silly fluff. As with "Scream," he pokes fun at the fact
that the plot is trash. It's not as blatant or as complex
as "Scream" but it's good enough. Like a good cheesy
flick, there's plenty to laugh at and not much to think
about. It's better, of course, if you don't think about
it. But with Williamson behind the typewriter, at least
it's not so bad if you do.
As for special effects, there not to shabby. There's
a pretty cool looking monster in the film and plenty
popping veins and gook. It's not too bad, really.
"The Faculty" takes itself just serious enough to be
enjoyable. It has fun with a genre that many would think
is worn threadbare. It peoples it with pretty teens
and scores it with throbbing alt-rock and everybody
wins.
Note: Rodriguez also works on Special Effects and Editing
teams here. Original music by Marco Beltrami.
The film was know during production as "The Untitled
Williamson/Rodriguez Project" and then "Feelers."
The nepotism factor: (These are only guesses) Also with
Dannie Knowles and Jarrell Knowles. Special Effects
team includes Frank Tarintino.
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