04.11.05
Movie Review: The Smokers (2000)

It has a reputation for being just awful (it’s currently #83 on the IMBD Bottom 100), but it seems to mainly be a victime of poor promotiopn;  it was marketed as hip indy teen comedy (a la Ghost World, Rushmore, Heathers…) but at heart it’s a cheap exploitation flick. Had it been released 30 years earlier, it would probably be hailed as a schlock classic by now. Dominique Swain, Keri Lynn Pratt and the (always wonderful) Busy Philipps play the title characters, three boarding school girls who get sick of men using them as sex objects and go on a rampage of terror. Well, a demi-rampage. The low, low budget only allows for two guys to be terrorized. The script is a mess- narrated by Swain’s character, it seems to be set in the1970’s, but CDs and Tamagotchis are prominently featured for some reason. And it’s slow. And the special effects are awful. Bonus: Director/screenwriter Kat Slater’s other credits seem to all be porn films.