B-movie Review: Teeth

Year: 2007

Starring: That girl from "Guiding Light" and That guy from "Nip / Tuck"

Favorite line in the movie: "I haven't even jerked off since Easter!"

Favorite prop made for the movie: A detailed sketch of a hairy vagina

"Teeth" opens with beautiful panoramic views of suburban America and an original soundtrack reminiscent of early Danny Elfman work. We see tree-lined streets with nice houses, kids on their bicycles and shiny new cars. Then, we see the cooling towers from the power plant in the background. I guess we can assume this is a nuclear power plant, although the key element required for such a thing (a large body of water) is absent. The black smoke tips us off, even though most of us know "smoke" from a cooling tower is actually steam and therefore white, but that's beside the point. We then see our hero and her brother as children. They are in an inflatable pool in the front yard of their home, parents chain-smoking and partaking in some good 'ol fashioned mid-day drinking behind them.

Within the first five minutes of the movie we see evidence of both child abuse and sexual assault between various family members. We then learn the two children are actually step-siblings (this is important for later plot points, so it is repeated a second time to make sure even the most idiotic viewers are sure to catch the hint).

Flash-forward to present day and we see Dawn (our hero) giving a speech about the importance of abstinence more cheesy than I ever thought possible. Much to my surprise (really), we learn that she is actually serious. Dawn is a pure soul with no intentions of being led astray by her peers and their impure desires. She doodles wedding dresses in the margins of her notebooks and has fantasy after fantasy of her wedding day and finally getting to do the nasty with the man of her dreams. She only watches G-rated movies and she's never kissed a boy.


Then we meet the other child from the pool scene, Brad (an actor I really enjoyed in the TV show Nip / Tuck [Matt] and he seems to have brought the same character with him). Brad is an asshole. He is a "type A" asshole that disrespects his girlfriend, plays metal music loud in his parents' house, has a rottweiler trained to kill, wears shirts with the sleeves cut off, and he has a tattoo of a dragon (yes, a dragon) in the middle of his chest.

Through some twists and turns of badly-written plot, Dawn finds herself a victim of date rape, which is where my *favorite line of the movie* comes into play. She fights the guy off of her but he is stronger and pins her down and forces himself inside of her. (The scene is more cheesy than anything else, but in text it seems disturbing, doesn't it?) So, there he is, doing his thing and then... crunch ... He screams like a little girl and tries to fight his way off of her. After a bit of a struggle, he finally breaks away (still screaming like a girl) and we see him standing over her. A dramatic zoom into his nether-regions reveals a bloody mess where his penis used to be. Oh, the horror!

Our hero doesn't know what happened to her forceful lover and decides to seek medical attention. After another similar experience at a gynecologist office, Dawn simply uses google to learn she has an "adaptation" as she calls it. A "toothed vagina," if you will. She finds some Greek mythology on the subject and learns that only her "hero" would be safe inside her, leading us into the classic "true love trumps all" plot line. Somewhere along the line, though, she decides to use her "gift" against those she hates... and any other guy that simply rubs her the wrong way (no pun intended).

Along with a sub-plot of Dawn's dying mother, a sexy cast of malicious young men, copious amounts of squirting blood and a hidden moral not unlike those found in teen television dramas, "Teeth" presents a new take on "the girl next door" sure to leave you rolling hysterically in the isles. Not only is the premise completely ridiculous, but the acting is almost good enough to make you believe this is an actual attempt at a horror movie. Even the ever-present nuclear cooling towers looming in the background of nearly every outdoor shot serve as a nice little reminder that you're watching a completely under-rated cult classic. I give this movie 3 out of five high-pitched screams.

"Teeth" is currently available for instant streaming on Netflix so feel free to check this gem out.

How's That Hopey-Changey Thing Working Out?

Excuse me while I step up onto my liberal soap box and exercise my freedom of speech.

*ahem*

Let's talk about bumper stickers for a bit. It seems I see more and more every day, and I think they're maybe getting more and more ridiculous each day. I guess its the easiest way to let everyone know exactly what type of person you are with a 10in x 3in quirky quote. Who comes up with these things? Here's a few of my favorite.


Does anyone else see anything funny about this? Pro-life and also Pro-gun? What are guns for? Protection, huh? So, someone is "coming right for you" and you're going to do what? Shoot them, right? Wouldn't that run a very high risk of killing them? That's not very pro-life of you, tisk tisk, sir. Oh, they're for hunting you say? So, you see a deer or a duck or a mongoose or whatever you're hunting and you shoot it, right? You know, that might kill it. What's that? The gun is a family heirloom from your great uncle Jimmy that fought in the war? WAR? That gun was designed to go to war to do what? Open care packages?

Look, I don't care if you own a gun. I, personally, don't like them too much and prefer not to own one. You can have 50 guns for all I care, but you should at least realize that they were made to serve one purpose.


"Yeah, speak English cuz thems people that're diff'rent from me is bad people." English came from England. Spanish came from Spain. German from Germany, etc. I guess if we follow this logic, being an American should mean speaking the native dialects of whatever region you're in.
Um. Sure, that'll teach 'em!

What!? You'd rather be torturing people? The same person that puts this bumper sticker on their car was cursing Michael Vick a few years back for being mean to dogs. Don't get me wrong, I hate Vick for that too, but how is it acceptable to torture a human and not a dog. Those dogs were bad dogs. They were raised to be mean dogs and trained to fight to kill. So were those people being waterboarded. What I'm trying to say is there has to be a line somewhere.
Stupid Jimmy Carter with his silly "human rights" ideas. Wasting all that time founding the Department of Education and leading Habitat for Humanity. That Nobel Peace Prize was a waste on that guy, eh?
Sissy? Oh, right. That's a slang word comparable to "faggot" but they can't use that word anymore. Here's a perfect example of that bully on the playground. He was big and mean. He would hurt and humiliate anybody he could. He did this because he couldn't make any friends and he wasn't smart enough to have school work to do. Timeless "my brain don't work so I'll poke fun at you" syndrome. Big truck = Big bully. Little car = substandard human (i.e. gay)

Where do these people get the idea that "liberals" want to take their money and give it away to people that just sit on their asses all day? Oh, I'll get you, Glenn Beck! Just a little reminder of just a few of the programs that are funded by the tax payers: Medicare, Medicaid, Women Infants and Children, Roads, Libraries, Schools. Now, there are people that abuse the system, yes, I'm not going to argue that. However, you can not do away with these programs because there are people that need them. Are you going to tell your grandma not to get her broken hip operated on because that money might reflect a 0.5 cent shortage on your paycheck? Are we going to close all of the libraries because it isn't "fair" that you have to pay taxes to buy books for people that can only afford to rent them? [Oh, and to my fellow Floridians: Shut the fuck up because we don't even pay local taxes like most of the rest of the country]

*ahem.*

Stepping down from the box now. I just wanted to show you one last thing. You might want to shield the eyes of any young children that might be around before viewing it, though. It is quite grotesque and honestly, the scariest thing I have ever seen in my life.

In My RIGHT Mind*

Jacksonville, my current home town, is one of the most segregated cities I've been to. There are several neighborhoods and they are all made up of people of the same race and financial class. For example, the beaches are made up of mostly middle class white people, Avondale is made up of mostly upper class white people, Springfield is mostly poor black people (and a few hipsters), and Riverside is mostly 20-somethings that work in the restaurant industry (and a few hipsters). I live in Murray Hill which is, essentially, old white people waiting to die (and a few hipsters) surrounded by bad neighborhoods. My neighborhood is quite nice, but the surrounding streets are filled with ghetto.

Winn-Dixie is the closest grocery store to my house, and although I much prefer Publix, I end up at Winn-Dixie when I need something quick. I hate that place and the people that shop there. Every time I go in there I leave with raised blood pressure while questioning my political beliefs and "the system."

I go there to buy a few necessary things:
Diapers (because my baby goes through a lot of them)
Jelly (because all I can afford to eat for lunch is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches)
Store brand chips (because I can't afford Lays or Ruffles)
and Milk (so I can whip up some amazing Hamburger Helper for dinner)

We eat Hamburger Helper twice a week as a "fancy" dinner. We have not had steaks, chicken or fresh vegetables in quite some time. We don't have money because we spent $650/month for health care while I was pregnant and I'm on an unpaid maternity leave. Plus, the added expense of diapers, formula and tons of doctor's visits.

I was one of the 55 million uninsured Americans when I found out I was pregnant. I immediately applied for Medicaid but was denied because I "make too much money." I was also denied short term disability so my time off work would be completely unpaid.

So, I'm in Winn-Dixie buying scraps of food in order to not starve every day and I see a girl a little younger than me. She's in her early 20s and pregnant. She's pushing a cart with two other children in it, one about 4 years old and the other was about 3. The 3 year old was looking through her mom's Coach bag for her Channel lipstick. I watched her as she made her selection of steak cuts from the meat section. I was jealous, as I have not purchased any luxuries in quite some time.

I made my way through the store and to the check out line, where she was in front of me with her kids and her fine meat products. I watch her place steaks, formula, salad, potatoes, cookies, cereal and a cake onto the food treadmill and eventually pull out her EBT card to pay for it all. She was using food stamps. Government money. Taxpayer's money to buy these things, these delicious delicious things.

Here she is, probably unemployed as it is the middle of a week day, buying food I can't afford with money that's coming out of my paychecks as long as I'm actually getting them. Pregnant with her third child, using Medicaid to pay for her doctor's visits. Medicaid that comes out of my paychecks as long as I'm actually getting them.

The system, as it stands basically breaks down like this:
Work hard to just make enough to get by on your own - no help for you in case of an unexpected pregnancy or any other life-changing situation that may hinder your ability to buy decent things.
Have a couple of kids and sit on your ass all day - have everything for free!!

I've even seen commercials recently that explain that if you're already receiving free health care and food stamps, you can probably get a cell phone for free, too! My God! Why do any of us actually work in the first place? Oh yeah, to buy ghetto child-factories steaks.

This instance was not a first. Every time I'm in that store I see the same thing, and every time it causes me to rant about how these people are getting handouts when I, and actually contributor to society, can't afford more than peanut butter.


*WARNING: If read incorrectly, this blog may lead reader to believe the writer is a republican. Failure to notice the writer is actually quite liberal may result in inappropriate comments, unruly political debates, internet bullying, sarcasm, internal injury or even death. Please use precaution when reading this blog post as the writer will not be held responsible for improper interpretation.