The Crush

Good acting from Alicia silverstone at such a young age & Cary Elwes. Both showing off their good looks in an interesting 90s film. I liked that they played on a woman being the seductress and villain as i feel like in this modern day and age women are never set as the villain. If anything i'd have liked the film / ending to be more sinister, happy endings do tend to be forgettable.

This sexy thriller is very much entertaining for the *wrong* reasons. It's absurd, trashy, and utterly laughable. It does have a memorable antagonist in the form of young Alicia Silverstone, who plays Adrian Forrester, a Lolita-ish 14-year-old who develops a serious crush on Nick Eliot (Cary Elwes), the 20-something journalist renting a guest house from her parents (Kurtwood Smith, Gwynyth Walsh). Of course, nobody believes the older man when he protests that the crazed girl is the wrongdoer, and Nick finds his life continuously going awry as she creates one problem after another.

Written and directed by Alan Shapiro, this film doesn't exactly have the brightest characters. As a result, you never really root for Nick. Fortunately Silverstone, who'd previously made her name in Aerosmith rock videos, is a total hoot as this deranged gal who does some pretty nasty things to make her crush look bad. And things do indeed look very bad for Nick when she frames him for sexual assault. Elwes does what he can with his obtuse role, while Smith has some choice moments as the dad. Jennifer Rubin looks quite lovely as the photographer whom we know is more appropriate for Nick. And Amber Benson lends some solid support as Adrians' "friend" who tries to warn Nick about what she knows.

The movie *is* well paced and climaxes in one of the more priceless confrontation scenes that you're likely to see in this sort of thing. The ending is actually rather effective in its payoff of the Adrian character.

Silverstone may well have had a body double for the nude scenes, but it's still quite uncomfortable when remembering that the character being watched is a mere 14 years old.

All in all, "The Crush" is entertaining if exploitative trash, and should never ever be taken too seriously.

Seven out of 10.

Released in 1993, "The Crush" is about a 28 year-old writer, Nick (Cary Elwes), who moves to Seattle to work for a magazine. After moving into the guest house of the well-to-do Forresters their only child, 14 year old Adrienne (Alicia Silverstone), develops an increasingly unhealthy crush on him. Jennifer Rubin and Matthew Walker play Nick's girlfriend & boss while Kurtwood Smith and Gwynyth Walsh play Adrienne's parents and Amber Benson her neighbor.

This belongs to the Lethal Lolita sub-genre of drama/romance/thrillers. These movies always involve a hot teenager who utilizes her freshly bestowed womanly powers to seduce an older man and create havoc. "The Crush" is actually better than Stanley Kubrick's revered "Lolita" (1962), which was the first of its kind (at least the first to popularize the topic anyway). In the early 90s these kinds of movies made a comeback with 1992's "Poison Ivy" starring Drew Barrymore. "The Crush" isn't haunting and artsy like "Poison Ivy," but it's just as good and arguably marginally better. "Poison Ivy" has better style while "The Crush" is more straight-forward, sort of like 1987's "Fatal Attraction," but with a teenage antagonist.

Speaking of which, Alicia shines here in her cinematic debut. She was only almost-16 during filming, but easily commands attention throughout. Elwes is great as the protagonist with solid support from Rubin.

These types of attractions happen all the time in real life (a teenage girl developing a crush on an older guy) and it's the responsibility of the adult to erect and maintain proper boundaries so the situation doesn't spin out of control, like it does here. If the adult lets things go too far the girl will either be so devastated she becomes nigh suicidal, like in 1976's "Lifeguard," or she turns malevolently psycho.

To me "The Crush" would've worked better as a bittersweet coming of age drama, like the subplot of "Lifeguard," rather than a drama that morphs into thriller bordering on horror, like "Fatal Attraction." The first half is strong as a coming-of-age drama before transforming into the latter in the second half with its contrived thriller/horror mechanics. But they didn't ask me to write the script so I accept the movie as is. As a matter of fact, I feel it breaks the threshold of greatness for what it is.

The movie runs 89 minutes and was shot in Vancouver, British Columbia.

GRADE: A-

This felt inspired by "Lolita" yet lacking all the finesse of the original. Yet this was the film that launched Alicia Silverstone into those Aerosmith music videos and into more movies as this was her debut. She did a solid job acting and displayed a range of believable emotions. The movie is about a journalist who rents an over the garage room from a family who has a 14-year-old daughter. The poor guy just wants to write but this girl keeps grabbing his attention. He tries to avoid an underage entanglement but he's ensnared by a kiss which she uses as leverage to torment him until he succumbs to her romantic desires. Who will have the upper hand and how intense will her tormenting go? This is a decent movie yet left room for cinematic improvement.

The Crush is about a 28 year old journalist named Nick Elliot. He rents a guesthouse and befriends the landlady's beautiful 14 year old daughter Adrian (Alicia Silverstone). Adrian seems lonely, so Nick starts spending a little time with her and he gets to know her better. Nick just sees Adrian as a friend, but Adrian starts obsessing over him and she wants to be more then just friends, much more. And if Adrian can't have Nick, then no one can.. I enjoyed this movie, all the actors did a fine job. I would give The Crush 8/10