So to train my amateur writing hand a little better I am setting out on a little exercise and visiting some cult classics, films that have come to my attention over the last year but have so far been somehow neglected, and perhaps even some oldies that I love!
All in the hopes of extending my film vocabulary....
Heathers (1989)
I remember seeing Mean Girls in the cinema thinking it was refreshingly different from the other teen comedies that had been circulating around that era (the era I speak of is that Golden Age of Millenia-teen films, 10 Things I Hate About You, Down To You, She's All That, but to name a few, I guess Mean Girls was a few years after, but you get my drift). Mean Girls came along and set about debunking the romantic notions of teenage-hood, and decided to shed some light on the harsh realities of High School. There was less, I stress less, of a focus on the girl-likes-boy dilemma while the examination of the fickle foundations of female friendships really takes center stage.
Though Tina Fey's originality and wit are boundless, Mean Girls, its plot, and characters owe everything to Heathers. Heathers is a far superior, satirical, more sinister commentary on the tenuous years of High School. It villainises these characters, giving them unprecedented power, the exaggerated (but not altogether unimaginable) murder plot parodying the usual hormonal deviations of an American teen.
Veronica, the oft under-appreciated Winona Ryder, is a girl who is not named Heather but who has been given divine access to the elite Heathers clique, for reasons unknown. At first she feels privileged to be included and is even enthralled by the warped superiority of the malevolent lead Heather. She is enamoured by Heather's philosophies, that in fact justify her tyrannical ways, "Dear Diary, Heather told me she teaches people real life." The film is full of gems like this, Fey wishes she could be this raunchy and self-assured in her writing. Heather 1 is like a cacophony of teenage-hood and adulthood, she is self-possessed, relishing her youth yet outgrown the anxieties of her peers. She is acutely aware of her surroundings, so much so that she has created her own glossary, according to her authority, "very" marks a seal of coveted approval, Heather desires very, because she desires excess and vitality.
She blithely critiques the stereotypes of youth, and condemns her followers for falling victim, "Grow up Heather, bulimia is so '87." Still inevitably lacking sympathy, Heather's independence is what makes her both enviable and caustic.
She eventually tethers nerves, leading Veronica to naively succumbs to her new boyfriend's scheme to throttle the queen bitches, after unwittingly becoming an accessory in Jason's murder plot, when Heather 1 ingests her poisonous end.
Christian Slater plays Jason Dean, and though in Jack Nicholson's psychosis The Shining mode, when clothed in leather jacket and straddling a motorbike he personifies James Dean 2.0. He is an 80s incarnation, the upper-class rebel without a cause who sets about invigorating a spirit into an era that lacked the rebellious attitude that drenched the Hippie 60s and 70s punks.
Though murder and mayhem landmark her journey, Veronica is actually an admirable character, even somewhat a feminine role model. She takes a stand, an intense one, against bullying. And though they are the MTV generation's Bonnie and Clyde, when she realises that she has descended into psychotic territory with her boyfriend she transcends this too. She evolves beyond the suburbia complex, the vacuous pandering of unmitigated angst. Even this is tackled ironically, when after further rampage, Veronica consults her diary again, professing that "...my teen angst bullshit has a bodycount."
Veronica's rebellion from standards is where it is actually a reverse of Mean Girls. Mean Girls begins with Cady and her friends devising a plan to conquer and destroy the influence of The Plastics. Cady herself is blinded by power leading to a somewhat smaltzy ending where everyone learns their lesson and lives happily ever after. Heathers' resolution, if it can be called that, is far more cathartic. It abandons sentiment, a pitfall that much mainstream American cinema. Both film's exhibit climatic scenes in a school gym, both are executed extremely differently. Mean Girls looks like an after-school special in the shadow of Heathers' explosive metaphors.
The final word on Heathers. How very.
"I just killed my best friend"
"And your worst enemy"
"Same difference"
 |
| Well hello, shoulder pads... |
Veronica, the oft under-appreciated Winona Ryder, is a girl who is not named Heather but who has been given divine access to the elite Heathers clique, for reasons unknown. At first she feels privileged to be included and is even enthralled by the warped superiority of the malevolent lead Heather. She is enamoured by Heather's philosophies, that in fact justify her tyrannical ways, "Dear Diary, Heather told me she teaches people real life." The film is full of gems like this, Fey wishes she could be this raunchy and self-assured in her writing. Heather 1 is like a cacophony of teenage-hood and adulthood, she is self-possessed, relishing her youth yet outgrown the anxieties of her peers. She is acutely aware of her surroundings, so much so that she has created her own glossary, according to her authority, "very" marks a seal of coveted approval, Heather desires very, because she desires excess and vitality.
She blithely critiques the stereotypes of youth, and condemns her followers for falling victim, "Grow up Heather, bulimia is so '87." Still inevitably lacking sympathy, Heather's independence is what makes her both enviable and caustic.
She eventually tethers nerves, leading Veronica to naively succumbs to her new boyfriend's scheme to throttle the queen bitches, after unwittingly becoming an accessory in Jason's murder plot, when Heather 1 ingests her poisonous end.
Christian Slater plays Jason Dean, and though in Jack Nicholson's psychosis The Shining mode, when clothed in leather jacket and straddling a motorbike he personifies James Dean 2.0. He is an 80s incarnation, the upper-class rebel without a cause who sets about invigorating a spirit into an era that lacked the rebellious attitude that drenched the Hippie 60s and 70s punks.
 |
| Slater, making evil acceptable in 1989. |
Veronica's rebellion from standards is where it is actually a reverse of Mean Girls. Mean Girls begins with Cady and her friends devising a plan to conquer and destroy the influence of The Plastics. Cady herself is blinded by power leading to a somewhat smaltzy ending where everyone learns their lesson and lives happily ever after. Heathers' resolution, if it can be called that, is far more cathartic. It abandons sentiment, a pitfall that much mainstream American cinema. Both film's exhibit climatic scenes in a school gym, both are executed extremely differently. Mean Girls looks like an after-school special in the shadow of Heathers' explosive metaphors.
The final word on Heathers. How very.
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