Jawbreaker

February 26, 1999

Despite what you’ve heard, JawBreaker is not a Heathers rip-off. These girls are not doing the world a favor by offing the biggest bitch in school – these bitches asphyxiate their school’s Princess Di. And look damn good doing it…

I want to be Rose McGowan when I grow up – she gets the juiciest film roles, she has the best outfits at any award ceremony and she is dating Marilyn Manson…hold on, scratch that – I want everything BUT Marilyn Manson. I’ll pretty much watch any film with Rose in it, no matter how bad it is. I was prepared to sit through JawBreaker, no matter how bad it was. Luckily it didn’t turn out to be bad at all. (But keep in mind, dear reader, that I also like the film Frankenhooker!) Speaking of Frankenhooker, there is a part in JawBreaker that reminds me of it. It’s the part when Fern is considering Courtney’s proposition and has a fantasy about her being made into a beauty using the body parts of the recently deceased Liz…it also reminds me of Tim Burton.

It is like Heathers in that a lot of the film’s logic is based on the school’s breakdown into cliques and the sterotypes about them. There is also the moment when the popular girl turned pariah realizes the folly of cliques and remembers how she used to play with no longer outcast Fern when they were in 4th grade. Beyond that, JawBreaker is almost a parody of Heathers. The stereotypes are much more…um, stereotypical. The jocks are jockier, cheerleaders are perkier and for some reason, all the uncool girls are called lesbians – just like when I was in high school! Some things never change.

My boyfriend did not like this film. Or rather, he liked it when we were watching it, he thought it was okay when we were driving home from the theater and he thought it was stupid when any guy asked him if he liked it. JawBreaker will not win any awards, but it was fun, demented and bitter, so I liked it. I just wish I could get the theme song (Yoo Hoo by the Imperial Teens) out of my head.