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.
Hi Brandy,
ReplyDeleteI love that you chose to write about this movie because it has inspired me to watch it. I feel like I will it mostly because I love Jawbreaker and Mean Girls. You are right it totally does stick to the regular stereotypes but just from watching the trailer I can tell its much more intense and dark than the typical teen rom-com movie. I can tell that the movie is not going to be light-hearted and giddy. I like what you say about the targeted audience for this movie. Its definitely seems less mainstream. I seriously am going to watch this and I let you know what I think. Thanks for sharing.
-Abbi
Oh I loved Heathers and Jawbreaker! (<--My fangirlness of Rose McGowan started here!) I did enjoy the complete backwards views about this genre within this movie. This may be what my weekend homework/study time is broken up by!
ReplyDeleteI have not watched this movie yet but, it seems like an interesting comedy to watch. I think any movie with Winona Ryder is going to be a good movie. It kind of reminded me of Weathering Heights (and correct me if I am misspelling that) but, turned into a comedy it seems like.
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