Review of Heathers (1989) by Man With N — 23 Aug 2013

Heathers is most definitely my favorite comedy. Most comedies that try to put a twist on the genre owe something to this movie. The story and commentary tell themselves without having to walk you through the whole movie. It's funny and full of quotable lines. If the acting seems off, it's trying to be an American Psycho sort of movie with exaggerated to make people cardboard cut-outs of other people to satirize high schoolers of the time. The acting is supposed to be ridiculous and if you can't excuse it, the rest of the movie makes up for it.

Christian Slater is has the most exaggerated performance and he does it perfectly. He first comes off as someone who has just moved in and just wants the people to see society the way he sees it. He starts going psycho making fake suicides of the popular people and jocks and using Wionna Ryder's character to help pull them off. Sometimes she gets tricked into killing them and Slater just wants chaos as an excuse for people to see what he sees of society. He's the extreme of aware teenagers. He's what people of his age who are aware of the world he lives in and don't like it would want to do.

The script is clever, the commentary is relevant and the film is accurate. It deserves even more praise than just a cult fan base as it's scarily original and endlessly quotable as well as very entertaining.

I'm giving Heathers a 10/10. I highly recommend it.