Corn Nuts

Also...
Since Leah had never seen it, and I hadn't seen it in probably 10 years... we watched Heathers this weekend.

I remember liking this movie back in the day, and was interested to see whether it held up.

I also remembered the movie being pretty dark, and that it skewers all kinds of (80s versions of) highschool stereotypes. What I didn't remember was just how mercilessly and indiscriminately it mocks... and how unflinchingly brutal it is.

There are a few things that make me still like the movie, despite the unexpected coarseness, violence, and general anarchy...
Firstly, this might have been one of the first movies I saw that so forcefully throws (at least chapters of) the standard hollywood rulebook out the window. Characters that would typically be set up as outsider heroes end up being straight up psychotic... And the rules are broken without pulling any punches. Standard high-school movie stereotype mocking is dialed all the way up to cold-blooded murder. I think I will ALWAYS like movies that bend the rules...

Secondly, some of the dialogue is actually funny... albeit a LOT less of it than intended.

And thirdly, Winona Ryder's protagonist adds a hint of hope to an otherwise dark world. The movie basically sets her up in the (now) stereotypically clique-filled highschool movie world... which she rejects with the help of the cool outsider guy (who in this version is unexpectedly NOT the good guy, but a crazy murderous anarchist)...
Given two messed up approaches to life, she somehow rejects BOTH, opting for a much more complicated third route than is unusual for a highschool movie...


I am very glad that the producers didn't follow the original screenplay - which ended with suicide as the third option... and would have made for a pretty hopeless movie.



Your thoughts???