It's about damn time I finally got around to watching this movie. That's right, folks, I've never seen "Heathers." I know, I know, shut up. It's been on my "to wstch" list for years and years, but it's such a touchstone of culture that I've known everything that happens in the movie forever, and I could quote large portions of the movie with the best of them, so actually SEEING the movie always got pushed to the back burner. Of course, with a movie like this that gets praised so often (as though everyone agrees that it's great) the danger is that it won't live up to the hype.
Right away, the movie starts to annoy me with its obvious, over-the-top message. We get it, mean girls in high school suck and are terrible. So many movies have tread this territory over the years that it's easy to forget that this movie was one of the first to handle this subject in such a satirical way. I guess it's not fair to judge this movie for inspiring so many other movies over the years, but it's more than that.
Winona Ryder made a career out of being the angry, angsty anti-hero every outcast girl in the late 80s and early 90s looked up to. She was gorgeous, but she didn't seem to buy into the whole "money beauty fame" asthetic. She was so over that, man.
The thing is, though, I'm not in high school anymore, and I'm watching this movie in my 30s going "sure, they're bitches, but couldn't you just NOT hang out with them? Stand up for the kids they're bullying? Wouldn't that send a bigger message than going down in a murderous blaze of glory and acting like you're justified because the world would be a better place without mean bitches, or something like that?" Maybe I'm just too old for this shit, but I'm rolling my eyes where I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to be cheering. I should have watched this movie as a teen. I'd have loved it back then.
This isn't to say that the movie is bad or anything. It's funny in an over-the-top way, and there is some vindication in seeing girls who think they're better than everyone else get their comeuppance in gruesome ways. I just got old somehow while I wasn't looking, and things I would have thought were the coolest when I was younger now seem...immature and not as awesome as they think they are. I am glad I finally checked this movie out, though, I'm just disappointed that I was 20 years too late.
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