Monday 21 March 2016

Jawbreaker (1999)


Directed and written by: Darren Stein

A birthday prank goes horribly wrong when three most popular girls in school accidentally kill their friend.


Jawbreaker gave me the feeling of high school comedy meeting a exploitation b-movie, kinda like Mean Girls meets Death proof, or Heathers meets Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! I wasn't entirely wrong, even though I don't think I can compare Jawbreaker with either Death Proof of Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! Heathers is such a cult movie on its own, it's easy to compare Jawbreaker with it. Both involve bitchy high school girls, murder and dark humour.

I find myself loving these kind of movies with black humour. They are stupid, absolutely, but for some reason they are absolutely hilarious. You just know people are going to hate the movie, and it's just part of the fun. 

The story is horrible yet so absurd it's almost funny. Of course the kidnapping gone wrong seems highly unlikely, yet it also feels plausible. I feel like I should be telling my friends not to try to kidnap me for my birthday. The characters aren't written so well, but they are fun. They are the typical archetypes of high school movies. Rose McGowan plays the most devious high school bitch I've ever seen in a film, and Rebecca Gayheart, Julie Benz and Judy Greer all pose as different kind of characters of the same type. I would've loved to see more of some characters, especially Vera Cruz portrayed by Pam Grier. When I saw her, I thought her part was going to be bigger. I was disappointed.

The dialogue in Jawbreaker was just as good as in Heathers. It isn't actually realistic, because the language is extremely colourful, and no one would say several lines from this movie out loud because it wouldn't sound good in any context. But it works in a movie. 

There are so many details in this movie I love, but one thing I have to mention is the effects when the scene changes. Like the whole movie, they are stupid, but that's part of Jawbreaker's charm.

If I had to recommend few songs from the soundtrack of Jawbreaker, I'd say Bad Word For A Good Thing by The Friggs and (Let the) Good Times Roll by The Cars. All the songs were well chosen and they worked. And some of the songs (especially the two mentioned) are like they could be straight from my music library. I love it when this happens while watching a movie.

Jawbreaker is stupid but in a funny way. It's obviously dark, so if you have the tendency to get angry at the jokes being too dark for you to enjoy them, then don't bother. I love this film and I want more!

Am I horrible if I wanted this to be more violent?

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
8 / 10

No comments:

Post a Comment