Cutting Class (1989) *

What a weird fucking movie Cutting Class (1989) is. I have watched this a few times in the past, the first time probably in the late 90s. I was chuckling to myself at a memory. My sister was one of those teen girls just head over heels for Pitt coming off Legends of the Fall (1994), and she mentioned to me in passing about a flick she read about in one of those biographies on him called Cutting Class. Obviously I would eventually rent it on VHS and again see it a few times on cable and Satellite. I’ve never liked it, but, nonetheless, I will watch it again if it comes on. It is one of those slasher oddities that bookends the 80s as the genre was in need of shock paddles as the life support couldn’t keep it from flatlining. This film really is just all over the place tonally. It does seem like those involved were going for comedy, but I never felt it comes off clean but is just off period. But, probably despite of itself, I think this is the kind of film that will have its particular cult audience just because it has an identity crisis.

I never could figure out Schoelen’s character. She must have a thing for volatile brats. Of course, yes, dreamy guys most teenage gals would drop their panties for could be considered Pitt and Leitch. Leitch never convinces, I didn’t feel, that he’s a red herring and Pitt is just too much of a temperamental dick to give a rat’s ass about at the very end. And Schoelen just keeps putting herself in dangerous situations despite being somewhat categorized as a smart girl with a daddy attorney (Martin Mull, who refuses to die despite an arrow crossbowed right into his torso and days of no medical attention, having to trek from a duck pond in a swampy wood to his own neighborhood) responsible for Leitch being sent to a mental institution for cutting the brake lines on his father’s car (that resulted in his death). Roddy McDowall really did squeeze a lot of milk out of the Fright Night (1985) teet. If Pitt isn’t discovering him in the costume department wearing a fake fruit hat (!), McDowall’s principal is ogling Schoelen’s panties when she bends over to pick up a cheerleading uniform he purposely left in the floor! He’s in about three or four scenes (his affability is ever present). Parents and students alike unleash their outcry and launch complaints at him for the murder of the Vice Principal (Nancy Fish; she is one of Dr. Giggles’ victims)…but, seriously, what can the Principal do?! Aren’t those complaints for the police department? He just gives off a happy-go-lucky, devil-may-care fuck-it attitude in his job and when addressing problems and such at the school. And the faculty does seem to be modeled by the screenplay and direction as similar to him: the chemistry teacher, the math teacher, the gym teacher, art teacher…they are all either perverts or assholes. I think many viewers will see Leitch as a hero for killing them!

Leitch is also a tough nut to crack. He seems interested in Schoelen but also appears to care what Pitt thinks. Pitt goes out of his way to pick on Leitch, ridicule him, bully him, and just be a general douchebag. And Pitt’s launching into a basketball opponent on the court during THE BIG GAME, while a scout and his father look on—the film does seem to want to say that Pitt is struggling with issues of parental pressure and trying to earn a scholarship but his constant shucking responsibility and ditching the work combats that—and the breaking into a school just to read Leitch’s file with his pal (and pal’s hot redhead gal, a friend to Schoelen, both of whom perish under the bleachers, unable to cry for help thanks to a horn concluding the end of THE BIG GAME) prove he’s just a timebomb ticking always. Leitch, for a brief period when approaching Schoelen (who was naked) while on the lam, would be presented as possibly setup by Pitt, but I just don’t believe too many viewers are gullible enough to buy that bill of goods. Leitch is often peeping behind a water cooler or the bushes or outside a window. He’s a creep who stares while Schoelen, while she doesn’t ever seem to mind…I always found that a bit bizarre. She’s Pitt’s girlfriend yet doesn’t shy away from smiling at him and sharing long looks (like at the drive thru, even taking a hotdog from him) with Leitch. This even provokes Pitt to anger, enough that he orders Schoelen (I can only imagine how this would stir the rage of today’s generation) into his car and away from Leitch. Pitt is always a powder keg, and Schoelen never seems too bothered by his mood swings. I guess because of Pitt’s looks his attitude could be endured?

Faculty get bumped off like the art teacher burned in an oven and the Vice Principal having her face smashed into the printing machine. The gym teacher is impaled on the spear of the American Flag while trampolining (!) while the math teacher fails to solve a puzzle left by Leitch on the chalkboard and gets ax to the head. I laughed that the janitor—who takes a particular dislike to Pitt and leaves behind outré zingers that are supposed to be warnings and just come off as goofy—is spared out of all the adults at the school. You’d think if any got bumped off early, it’d be him.

With dueling sanders in the machine shop as Leitch and Pitt fight it out, Pitt not only pronged but his head trapped in a vice, Brenda James (yum!) removing her panties while cheerleading to distract the opposing team’s fans (!), Schoelen popping outside to get the newspaper in a white shirt while trying to press it over her panties, awkward “sexual tension” between Schoelen and Leitch where the film tries to propose she might be interested in him (as if!), and Pitt just flying off the handle when his feathers are ruffled; I could see why this might have a cult following even if it is just off kilter in tone and fails to give us anyone that really makes sense as a well developed character.

I must admit Wall of Voodoo as a musical choice does seem to match the film's weird 80s eccentric personality. Opening with Pitt nearly running over a kid on his toy and hitting a car head on while distracted by something from backseat as the music introduces him to us just kicks things off in a way that continues to the end when Schoelen encourages Pitt to drive fast. 2/5