Post by StevePulaski on Jun 27, 2011 13:25:05 GMT -5
The "Heathers" clique at Westerburg High School.
Rating: ★★★
Heathers defines the eighties, teen comedy craze in the eighties and also proves mixing two seemingly distant genres like comedy and horror can be done if the material has a certain amount of each. Heathers has a ton of comedy, and a ton of very dark elements that almost make it a soft thriller. Its mix makes the whole film enjoyable and entertaining.
Winona Ryder plays Veronica, a very intelligent girl who is among one of the most popular girls in her high school Westerburg High. She is accompanied by three other girls, all with the same name "Heather" and form the "Heathers." They rule the high school. The jocks want them, other girls would kill to be like them, and even teachers look up to them.
Veronica is soon acquainted by motorcyclist J.D. (Slater) who understands Veronica's current frustration with the "if-you're-not-in-my-clique-you're-not-worth-my-time" phase her school is going through. J.D. and Veronica soon accidentally murder one of the Heathers and make it look as if it was a suicide with Veronica writing a fake suicide note. They soon become fake-suicide crazy, doing it to many other people until the pressure and sick joy of doing this gets to their head.
The film almost never sports a dull moment, and has a beautiful lead actress in her hay-day. While Slater's performance is reminiscent of a young Jack Nicholson with his out there personality and thick overcoat as if he were crazy, it doesn't drag this down into the level of a dumb teenager movie like one could easily mistake it of.
It sort of reminds me of a film I reviewed months ago called Jawbreaker. That film was almost Heathers and Mean Girls combined into one movie. The outcome was favorable, but like I opened my review of Jawbreaker, saying "Jawbreaker is a copy of a copy," I meant what I said. It's a fun movie, but brings nothing new to the table of genius movie-making.
Heathers, while given the same star rating as Jawbreaker, is far superior, but both stand as very well done pieces of entertainment. Of course, in this movie, the teenagers were all young and believable. In Jawbreaker, Rose McGowan and Rebecca Gayheart were pushing thirty trying to portray high schoolers. It didn't work so well.
The satirical elements in Heathers work, but the murder acts are done maturely. They aren't like some eighties films that are done on a level of corny, so bad it's good quality. In Heathers, it's so good it's good. Everything about this is enjoyable, and just when you thought no teenage movie can depict stress without being immature, Heathers sticks its head out.
Starring: Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannon Doherty, Lisanne Falk, Kim Walker, Penelope Milford, and Glenn Shadix. Directed by: Michael Lehmann.