The oft-adapted Les Liaisons Dangereuses is here re-imagined for today's older-teen generation in this French Netflix movie. The action is transplanted to beautiful scenic coastal Biarritz, where not only are wealth and status vital societal markers but also - inevitably - social media status, hence the setting and actors are impossibly attractive. What surprises is how closely elements of the original storyline are recognisable, even if this contemporary context makes it ring less convincingly than 1999's Cruel Intentions. Here, the local social media -and fantastically wealthy - power couple (a rich-bitch child film star and a floppy-haired surfer-rapper) manipulate the feelings of a newly-transplanted Parisian intellectual newbie and her awkward less-attractive local cousin. In spite of the low-wattage performances (and a dreadful comedic teacher figure), the power plays are used quite effectively, even if the film looks great but plays like a rather long and trying episode of The O.C.
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