'Heathers' is widely seen to be the ultimate teen movie - it certainly kick-started Christian Slater's increasingly high profile tabloid coverage. 'Heathers' has often been emulated but to date has not been bettered. 'Jawbreaker' came fairly close, suprising considering that I only picked it up from the store as I had seen everything in the house and wanted a film with dark humour and cheesiness similar to 'The Lost Boys'.
To summarise 'Jawbreaker' is a cross between 'Heathers' and 'Clueless', with a little 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' (the 1992 film, not the TV show). The debt which 'Jawbreaker' owes 'Heathers' is undeniable, and clearly reflected in both plot and dialogue. Plot wise both films follow a simple formula: friendship between four girls is fake and breaks down, one dies (and the crime scene is staged) while the good girl wanders off with an alternative boy who her old friends disapprove of.
In both films sexual perversions are abound, with at least one corpse in each being explained away due to sexual misadventure. Regretfully, 'Jawbreaker' did not come close to the delights of the mineral water joke in 'Heathers'.
Of course both films have a happy ending of sorts; unfortunately 'Jawbreaker' was less satisfying due to the smaller scale of the chaos. In 'Heathers' Christian Slater's aim was to kill everyone in the school and make it look like suicide. In 'Jawbreaker', all Julie wanted was revenge upon a single individual.
Despite the rushed ending, 'Jawbreaker' was fun to watch, mindless candyfloss with pretty good dialogue - a novelty for a contemporary teen movie. For example:
Miss Sherwood: "You don't think that Miss Mayo could have -- No. Miss Mayo is as sweet as the days are long."
Detective Vera Cruz: "It's a crazy world, Miss Sherwood. Some of the sweetest candies are sour as death inside."
And
[Marcie movies Liz's head]
Marcie Fox: "Ah!"
Courtney Alice Shayne: "What?"
Marcie Fox: "She looked at me. I swear to God she looked at me!"
Courtney Alice Shayne: "Her eyes are open. She's bound to look somewhere. My God Marcie, she's dead. Relax."
It has been a while since I saw a teen movie that amused me. 'But I'm a cheerleader' was disappointing, 'Disturbing Behaviour' was a big let down, while I saw 1992s 'Buffy the Vampire slayer' and 'Drop dead gorgeous' at the time. The main reason why I liked and identified with the film was probably due to the fact that they used the phrase "peachy keen". I have no idea where I picked it up from but have been using it for about 10 years now. The soundtrack also helped: The Cars "Good Times Roll", "Volcano Girls" By Veruca Salt and The Donnas kept me amused, while my partner in crime was amused by the inclusion of "Almost You" by Chesney Hawkes.
Having seen and largely enjoyed 'Jawbreaker', I do have one minor quibble: Marilyn Manson with terrifying facial hair engaging in sex was nothing that I ever wished to see. His cameo in 'Lost Highway' looks positively tame by comparison. Thwarted in my quest for a film similar for 'The Lost boys', I will have to resort to watching 'Elmo in Grouchland', thereby at least getting a fairly recent film that also satiates my desire for 1980s retro cool.
