Review of Heathers (1989) by James S — 08 Mar 2011

"Dear Diary, my teen angst bullshit has a body count....".

So goes arguably the coolest line in any movie, ever. The fact that all of it's competition comes from the same film is all the more reason to love Heathers.

Black as the night comedy does not come better than Michael Lehmann's high school, teenage suicide ("don't do it!") film. The Heathers of the title are the most powerful girl clique at Westerberg high (named after the lead singer of The Replacement....can this movie get any cooler???) in Sherwood, Ohio. Winona Ryder is getting a little tired of playing their reindeer games when Christian Slater's Jason Dean breezes into town to show her a novel answer to her problems. Winona just wants to bring the Queen Bees down a peg or two but naturally, they fall a little further than that. Six feet under further than that.

Thanks in no small part to a great chemistry between Ryder and Slater, plus great turns from all in the film, Heathers taps into the irrational teenage mind set more perfectly than any film has ever done. It builds on the fantasy many of us have had of getting rid of the school bullies once and for all. We feel no sympathy for the dead here. They are horrible and it's easy to identify with the movie.

Not only does Heathers boast a connection with its audience that most films can only dream of, it has quite possibly the greatest script of all time. Endlessly quotable, it is fresh, witty, pitch black, very funny and delivers so many memorable lines.

It is difficult to bring to mind a film that could be compared to Heathers. There have been other dark films about teenage years but most seem to have a bleakness underscoring them. Heathers relishes in the mix of emotions that high school represents and though it takes it's subject matter to the extreme, it is the emotions that always remain very real. It is hard to believe that a film could have the guts to do this sort of thing today, 20 years after Heathers was released.

Heathers is a one of a kind movie event, a darkly, sticky and delicious treat, probably very bad for you, but aren't all the best things?