I was in the mood for cliché this weekend, which there is absolutely nothing wrong with. I was hungering for gossip, for a popular clique, and ultimately for the theme of individuality winning over some swanky boy. I wanted something that tasted like Clueless and Mean Girls fell into a thanksgiving turkey and let me eat them up. This is what I expected when I finally sat down to watch Heathers, directed by Michael Lehmann. When it opened up to three well-dressed girls all playing croquet in a professionally groomed backyard, I didn't think I was wrong; but, boy was I ever.
Don't get me wrong, it was great! The movie starts off with the odd-one-out, Veronica (Winona Ryder), already in the clique (composed of three other girls, all named Heather, and herself). We are introduced to Veronica's special talent of forging people's handwriting, which is a very specific, very important plot device. When a cute boy (Christian Slater) pulls out a gun in the school cafeteria, the movie begins to show it's true colors. He is only given detention, surprisingly to both the audience and Veronica, though no one seems to care about much at Westerburg high, not even when it comes to their own lives. After a night of binge drinking, the head Heather has quite a hangover. Veronica runs to her aid, but accompanying her is the very troublesome J.D.: the boy who pulled the gun. Heather jokingly suggests that she'd like to kill Heather, and with a very easily avoidable chain of events, J.D. kills the head Heather with a cup of cleaning fluid. Veronica is then forced, and I use the term forced lightly, to write a suicide note from her 'best friend,' so that the two teen-lovers won't be charged with murder. (This will not be the first note that Veronica forges with her super-power of forging handwriting.) This sparks a long line of murder-suicide-suicide-attempts that drive the movie further and further into a hole of misfortune, bad decisions, and somehow the total desire to have Veronica and J.D. work out in the end, even though J.D. is totally a sociopath.
The first thing I’d like to say is that, Heathers surprised me in a way I didn’t realize I wanted to be surprised. It genre-meshes. It would be just as easy to say that Heathers is a Teenie-Bopper film as it would be to call it a horror film. All of the elements of teen drama are left in: apathetic teachers, mean girls, defiance of normalcy, but then mixed in to all that are very complicated plots to assassinate other students for mere pleasure. There comes the psychological breakdown of J.D., and Veronica trying to clean up the mess of bodies that she’s created in a pastel world. The movie is almost like a thriller wearing a mask. We see J.D. and Veronica as they are, rebellious and at least in J.D.’s case, staunchly apathetic. There’s no secret to the audience about who the killers are, or their motives. It’s the movie itself that charades as something it’s not.
The movie makes a statement about what it is to be, and to be cool. The Heathers aren’t cool. J.D. isn’t cool. Martha Dumptruck isn’t cool. No one in the entire school is cool.. As J.D. says, “People will look at the ashes of Westerburg and say, ‘Now there's a school that self-destructed, not because society didn't care, but because the school was society.’” Heathers makes a statement by satirizing high school, showing what it is to live, and what it is to die. In watching the film you can’t help be constantly thinking, what are these people doing with their lives?! When the student body starts dropping like flies, no one much seems to care unless they have something to gain from it. This is made blatantly obvious with the audible thoughts of people at the funerals, the way they gossip, and that the high school mourns for the television, and not for themselves.
Although Heathers is not entirely realistic, what with Veronica’s knack for writing with anyone elses hand, J.D.’s magical perfect timing, and the fact that J.D. and Veronica are frankly, a bit sloppy with their murders, and yet are never caught, It adds to the charm of the movie. Although it’s meant to surprise and shock, it has a light-hearted tone that can be hard to balance with the dark themes. The audience is not set to worry if the two will be arrested for their radical behavior, and for the most part, we are able to watch the movie with ease and gawk at how ridiculous the town is.
Heathers is full of symbols, and it’s quirky approach to the typical teenage drama-comedy is fresh and satisfying. Although it is not entirely believable, it is fun and meant to entertain, which it does a very nice job. Heathers will charm you with its wit and the complex dynamic between the characters. Although I would sooner compare it to Edward Scissor Hands than to Clueless, it is definitely worth your time, especially if you want to watch something unique and different. Nice job, Heathers. You’re beautiful.
4 out of 5 suicide notes
