Review of Heathers (1989) by Mike S — 01 Aug 2012

Winona Ryder plays Veronica Sawyer, a sharp-witted high school girl who is getting tired of her socialite friends and their diabolical schemes. She meets a rebellious boy named J.D. (an exceptionally young Christian Slater), who is fast to win her heart over with his charming, smooth-talking ways.

What starts out pretty innocently, however, takes a more grave and serious turn as J.D. proves even more manipulative than Veronica's upper class friends. Pushing her into the shadows, they go from one bad "accident" to another, with consequences to follow.

Brilliantly penned by Daniel Waters and with great personal direction from Michael Lehmann, this is anything but your ordinary teen movie arrangement. Sort of like Bonnie and Clyde meets Mean Girls, but with an even darker, pulpier edge.

All the while though, it's outrageously funny; bombarding us with hilariously written lines from left to right. You'll often catch yourself laughing when you by ethic soundness shouldn't, but you just can't help yourself.

Every actor present does an amazing job with their characters. There's Shannon Doherty, Lisanne Falk and Kim Walker as the three Heathers. But above all I must compliment the phenomenal leads, Winona Ryder and Christian Slater, whose chemistry and spot-on interplay is nothing short of wonderful.

My only real beef with this film concerns the second-rate soundtrack (or rather to say, lack thereof). There was such an infinity of great songs to pick from in the 80's, yet it chooses to go with those cheesy "keyboard" sounds that you'd find in any low-budget TV show from the time.

Other than that though, this is a wickedly entertaining dark comedy, in the same league of excellence as Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Amy Heckerling's Clueless. Or to use a more contemporary equivalent: Easy A with Emma Stone. Side-splitting, brainy and with a fantastic, multi-layered script, Heathers is a laugh riot I won't soon forget.