Tonight at 8 p.m., the Dryden will screen Basic Instinct (Paul Verhoeven, Us/France 1992, 125 min., 35mm).

Scripted by Joe Eszterhas (Jagged Edge) and starring Michael Douglas, Verhoeven's glossy pulp shocker stands as the ne plus ultra of the '80s/'90s erotic thriller. It was also one of the most controversial—and successful—hollywood movies of the 1990s. Based on hearsay about the film's content—gratuitous sex, over-the-top violence, and the depiction of bisexual women as murderous, man-hating psychopaths—protests against the film erupted even before shooting had finished. The eventual release did little to settle qualms, and this lurid tale of a successful crime novelist (Sharon Stone, famously sans culottes) who may have or may not have disposed of a one-night stand with an ice pick continues to annoy, fascinate, and liberate—all in equal measure. A paranoid male fantasy? A feminist parable of female empowerment? Both?

[source: Dryden website, 2015-May-4]