Heathers: Deconstruction of the 80's Teen Movie Genre

For the subject of genre I decided to focus on one of my favorite movies, the 1989 film Heathers. This dark comedy totally deconstructs the popular 'John Hughes-esque' teen rom-com genre popular in the 1980's.  It is the inspiration for later genre-busting films like Jawbreaker (1999) and Mean Girls (2004). At first glance, it appears to stick to the stereotypical tropes: high school setting, the popular clique, nerds/outcasts, meat head jocks, the mysterious bad boy, out of touch parents/adults, and the main character who is 'different than the other girls' traversing the social jungle.
However, the typical scenario of 'misfit turned popular' and 'good girl and bad boy fall in love' is turned on its head with the addition of teen suicide and murder to its plot. The protagonist, Veronica Sawyer (played by Winona Ryder) finds herself regretting her decision to join the popular Heathers and begins to exact revenge on each girl in the group with the help of her boyfriend JD (Christian Slater). Things take a turn again when Veronica realizes that (*spoiler alert*) JD is a sociopath and has to foil his plot to bomb the entire school at a rally. 
The teen comedy genre is usually a light-hearted affair, with minimal plot twists, simple happy endings, and a mainstream target audience of young adults and teens. Heathers however is dark and satirical, aimed at a smarter teen and adult audience. A sarcastic sense of humor and interest in social commentary is required to really enjoy a film like this. The intended audience is less mainstream and more indie or cult-like. It offers scathing views on such issues as social hierarchy, sexual assault, suicide, and conformity, to name a few.
I first saw this movie a few years after its release when I was about six years old thanks to my uncle who had a penchant for low-budget indie films. Needless to say, plenty of it went over my head. Regardless, I continuously re-watched it (and still do) and it is one of my favorite movies to this day. I believe being exposed to this (and other similar media) helped to shape me into the person I am now. I'm drawn to darker, somewhat cynical, and smart material with a critical social bent. 
Here's the trailer, but I recommend you experience the whole movie for yourself.

Koch Brothers Exposed

In this segment from the Brave New Films documentary "Koch Brothers Exposed", Senator Bernie Sanders discusses the different ways the Kochs have spread misinformation about Social Security with the intent of privatization.

The documentary establishes ethos right away by using a prominent, knowledgeable person for their argument (Senator Bernie Sanders). It also effectively displays logos by being structured logically and using hard evidence (example/proof>>conclusion). For each of the three points that the Koch Brothers have used in their argument on Social Security, the documentary shows tons of examples of pundits, politicians, etc who have been bankrolled by the brothers echoing their opinion on various media outlets. 
Also of note, the not so subtle dramatic music and sound effects adds a dash of pathos for your viewing pleasure! I think this excerpt from the documentary is pretty successful in proving that the Koch Brothers have a vested interest in controlling public opinion of the state of Social Security. They've manufactured reports to reiterate the idea that it is failing in a push for privatization (in other words, investing the funds on Wall Street instead), which of course benefits them the most.