'Teeth' is a biting commentary on teen sex

By Carina Chocano

April 18, 2008

(B+) You could never accuse Mitchell Lichtenstein (son of artist Roy) of pandering to market expectations. His first feature, Teeth, is a dark, gory and hilarious sendup of contemporary prudery, teen horror films, Christian abstinence programs, rampant cultural misogyny and latent gynophobia in ancient mythology that plays castration by vagina dentata for laughs.

The movie reimagines the ancient myth as the mortifying personal problem of an unsullied American teen whose awesome powers are as big a surprise to her as they are to her date-raping boyfriend.

Dawn (Jess Weixler) grew up in the shadow of a pair of nuclear cooling towers, which may explain why her genitals have developed the ability to fend off intruders with their sharp teeth.

A motivational speaker for a teen abstinence group, Dawn speaks in public on the importance of remaining "pure," and her only friends are a couple who apparently use abstinence as protracted foreplay. Dawn feels left out until they introduce her to Tobey (Hale Appleman), a cute and charming new guy who also happens to have made "the promise."

Lichtenstein mercilessly skewers the way the evangelical obsession with chastity results in people thinking and talking about sex constantly.

Dawn's attraction to Tobey is more powerful than anything she's ever experienced, and when they visit an Edenic swimming hole, Tobey forces himself on Dawn, whose vagina takes care of the rest.

Teeth is, at its core, a coming-of-age story about a girl dealing with her sexuality. Her sexuality just turns out to be a bit compromised. But as Lichtenstein has said, the myth, though it may have obscure medical origins, is really about projected fear.

>>>Teeth (Roadside Attractions) Starring Jess Weixler, John Hensley, Josh Pais. Directed by Mitchell Lichtenstein. Rated R for disturbing sequences of sexuality and violence, language and drug use. Time 88 minutes.

Carina Chocano writes for the Los Angeles Times.