To Die For (1995) Review

To Die For (1995)

To Die For follows Suzanne Stone, an ambitious small-town weather reporter with big dreams, who, unhappy in her marriage, coerces a local high school boy into killing her husband. 

Inspired by the bizarre true story of Pamela Smart, a school teacher convicted of seducing a teenager into killing her husband, To Die For is a frighteningly ahead of its time commentary on our media-obsessive society and the lengths some will go to for their time in the sun. 

In a time where most will give an arm and a leg for their shot at fame, Van Sant’s nightmarish mockumentary on toxic femininity has likely never been more relevant. With lines like “You’re nobody in America unless you’re on TV”, there’s a lingering darkness that proves just how far Suzanne is willing to go to be seen. 

Shot with a pseudo-documentary feel where we know from the jump, that Suzanne likely had a hand in her husbands murder, this a comedy of attitude, morals, and of a certain frame of mind. At what point does one look at their life and value that undying lust for fame so heavily, that she’s willing to screw her way into a kids head just to get it? That framing, from lighthearted, if not even a little comedic, to downright terrifying, in a manipulative and foreknowing way, where you see what Suzanne is doing to these kids and yet you can’t stop it. It’s telling of our society’s attraction to the media, the infectious quality of it all, and how now, more than ever, this is something to be wary of. 

We get a pretty strong cast as well, starring Holland Taylor, Kurtwood Smith, Wayne Knight, Illeana Douglas, Casey Affleck, Alison Folland, Matt Dillon, Joaquin Phoenix, and Nicole Kidman. You’d be hard pressed to find a more perfect fit for Kidman than here, delivering a revealingly intimate and thoroughly manipulative and cold performance that is textbook sociopath, particularly across from Phoenix, the unctuous teenager with whom we almost want to sympathize with. 

To Die For, directed by Gus Van Sant, is a blistering comedy that suggests much darker layers of the human condition, all for the sake of entertainment and the sickness of fame brings, that one woman is willing to manipulate and kill just to be “someone”. 

8.4/10