During the late 90s and early to mid 2000s, teen comedies were all the rage following pop culture and high school centered drama being a big source of revenue for millennials. While many have garnered strong cult status in the ongoing years, the 1999 dark comedy Jawbreaker stands as a fascinatingly sadistic take on the popular girl subgenre inspired by the likes of Heathers. While neither a critical or commercial success upon its original release, the film would go on to become a cult favorite in the years to come, and even after 25 years since its beginnings, there's a lot to appreciate about its subject matter.
The film focuses on a group of three popular girls at Reagan High School who accidentally kill their friend with a jawbreaker during an elaborate prank and accept an unpopular girl into their clique to keep things quiet. Arguably much darker in tone than your typical teen dramedy, Jawbreaker is both a comical exaggeration of stereotypical groups in high school and a cautionary tale of who your real friends are. Although there is a lot of time spent on the popular group leader Courtney Alice Shayne bringing the unpopular Fern Mayo into the spotlight, the film's heart is centered on how detached former member Julie Freeman becomes when the group continuously denies their crime, thus showing how troublesome the idea of fitting in can truly be. Rebecca Gayheart displays the right amount of sympathy in Julie as she comes to terms with the loss of her only real friend in the group, as well as Fern who becomes a shell of her real self. As hysterical as this film is throughout, there is a surprising amount of heart that you often don't quite get in these kinds of darkly comedic coming of age flicks.
Going more into the group, while Gayheart and Judy Greer share strong chemistry as Julie and Fern, Rose McGowan steals the show as Courtney in just how charismatically manipulative the character really is. In addition to practically controlling how others think and feel, including her stooge Foxy and jock Dane Sanders, McGowan is clearly having a ball in portraying such a glamorously despicable bully that one can't help but laugh along with her. Pam Grier also makes for an intimidating presence as the fiercely determined detective Vera Cruz and Carol Kane is humorous enough in her portrayal as the meek yet disgruntled assistant principal Ms Sherwood. Admittedly, despite showing more empathy and care towards Julie and Fern than Courtney and her drones ever could, Zach Tartak is probably the least interesting character in the whole film as he doesn't have much personality beyond his role in the plot. While the lead antagonist might be the sole reason to give this film a curious watch, the remaining cast do add just enough flavor to the feature's charm.
Now perhaps what gives this film its influence of Heathers is its production and costume design, which is nothing short of colorful eye candy. The ambiguous California setting adds into the environments one would expect across Reagan High, and Vikki Barrett managed to blend 1980s fashion trends with brightly colorful outfits for the distinct looking attire worn throughout the film. There's also somewhat of an irony that the costumes reflect the bright colors from actual jawbreaker since much like the candy itself, the characters may look sweet and succulent on the outside, but they could easily break you if you get too close. Adding onto the lustrous costumes and appropriate production design is a cool soundtrack consisting of catchy pop songs that accompany the story as much as they are entertaining in their own right. While it is often weird to hear these rockin' tunes in the context of a sexually charged dark comedy, there is an oddly nostalgic charm in hearing this soundtrack work off of the scenarios so smoothly that the film couldn't have worked as well without them.
Even though I might not be the target demographic for this kind of feature, I highly recommend Jawbreaker for those who are into darkly comedic teen movies like Heathers and Mean Girls. It might not age as well as those other more well known features, but it has an earnest charm in its story, characters and presentation that is just too endearing to resist. McGowan, Gayheart, Greer and others may have gone on to bigger and better things, but this film will always hold a special place in gen ziers' hearts for its uncanny approach to an already tackled subgenre. What a wacky concept elevated by wackier people.
The film focuses on a group of three popular girls at Reagan High School who accidentally kill their friend with a jawbreaker during an elaborate prank and accept an unpopular girl into their clique to keep things quiet. Arguably much darker in tone than your typical teen dramedy, Jawbreaker is both a comical exaggeration of stereotypical groups in high school and a cautionary tale of who your real friends are. Although there is a lot of time spent on the popular group leader Courtney Alice Shayne bringing the unpopular Fern Mayo into the spotlight, the film's heart is centered on how detached former member Julie Freeman becomes when the group continuously denies their crime, thus showing how troublesome the idea of fitting in can truly be. Rebecca Gayheart displays the right amount of sympathy in Julie as she comes to terms with the loss of her only real friend in the group, as well as Fern who becomes a shell of her real self. As hysterical as this film is throughout, there is a surprising amount of heart that you often don't quite get in these kinds of darkly comedic coming of age flicks.
Going more into the group, while Gayheart and Judy Greer share strong chemistry as Julie and Fern, Rose McGowan steals the show as Courtney in just how charismatically manipulative the character really is. In addition to practically controlling how others think and feel, including her stooge Foxy and jock Dane Sanders, McGowan is clearly having a ball in portraying such a glamorously despicable bully that one can't help but laugh along with her. Pam Grier also makes for an intimidating presence as the fiercely determined detective Vera Cruz and Carol Kane is humorous enough in her portrayal as the meek yet disgruntled assistant principal Ms Sherwood. Admittedly, despite showing more empathy and care towards Julie and Fern than Courtney and her drones ever could, Zach Tartak is probably the least interesting character in the whole film as he doesn't have much personality beyond his role in the plot. While the lead antagonist might be the sole reason to give this film a curious watch, the remaining cast do add just enough flavor to the feature's charm.
Now perhaps what gives this film its influence of Heathers is its production and costume design, which is nothing short of colorful eye candy. The ambiguous California setting adds into the environments one would expect across Reagan High, and Vikki Barrett managed to blend 1980s fashion trends with brightly colorful outfits for the distinct looking attire worn throughout the film. There's also somewhat of an irony that the costumes reflect the bright colors from actual jawbreaker since much like the candy itself, the characters may look sweet and succulent on the outside, but they could easily break you if you get too close. Adding onto the lustrous costumes and appropriate production design is a cool soundtrack consisting of catchy pop songs that accompany the story as much as they are entertaining in their own right. While it is often weird to hear these rockin' tunes in the context of a sexually charged dark comedy, there is an oddly nostalgic charm in hearing this soundtrack work off of the scenarios so smoothly that the film couldn't have worked as well without them.
Even though I might not be the target demographic for this kind of feature, I highly recommend Jawbreaker for those who are into darkly comedic teen movies like Heathers and Mean Girls. It might not age as well as those other more well known features, but it has an earnest charm in its story, characters and presentation that is just too endearing to resist. McGowan, Gayheart, Greer and others may have gone on to bigger and better things, but this film will always hold a special place in gen ziers' hearts for its uncanny approach to an already tackled subgenre. What a wacky concept elevated by wackier people.