Movie Review – Heathers

Heathers (1989)
Written by Daniel Waters
Directed by Michael Lehmann

Screenwriter Daniel Waters originally envisioned Stanley Kubrick directing the screenplay he wrote while working at a Los Angeles video store in 1986. The initial script was three hours long, and the opening cafeteria scene, added in subsequent drafts, was meant to be an homage to the opening barracks scene in Full Metal Jacket. Well, Kubrick didn’t make Heathers, though I am fascinated by what the film would have been like. It is still a fantastic movie, a satire dripping with the most acidic venom toward its targets, a mockery of everything white, suburban, and middle-class in America. 

Veronica (Winona Ryder) has become part of the popular girls clique at her high school in Sherwood, Ohio. They are known as the Heathers, wealthy girls with the same first name. Veronica gets a front row seat to the systemic cruelty these girls object the student body to daily and decides she wants to escape their pull. A new student shows up who might just provide that solution. J.D. (Christian Slater) is a wild card, pulling a handgun on a couple of jocks who shit themselves before he fires blanks. Veronica gets dragged along to a frat party by Heather Chandler, the “leader,” and proceeds to throw up on the queen. Chandler vows revenge for the embarrassment, and the schism widens.

Veronica and J.D. hook up, and afterward, they share their mutual hatred of Chandler and the tyranny of the Heathers. A plan is hatched, and they break into their mutual enemy’s home the following day, poisoning and killing her. Some clever clean-up positions the death as a “tragic suicide.” Veronica and J.D. find they’ve only increased Chandler’s popularity and led to Heather Duke’s (Shannen Doherty) ascendency to the seat of power. Veronica also has profoundly complicated feelings about what she and J.D. did. Slowly but surely, the cracks begin to show.

Heathers is a film I’ve known about for decades and stumbled across on cable TV multiple times, seeing fragments. This was my first full viewing, and I have to say I loved it. The first thing that struck me was how strong Ryder’s performance is here. I would argue that this is the best Winona Ryder performance ever. She’s been fine in many other things, but no role I’ve seen has brought out such effortless charisma and authenticity. She and Slater undeniably had fantastic chemistry on the set, and the scenes between them were so much fun to watch. I could have watched the two banter back and forth for two hours and been perfectly happy. 

We also see Christian Slater at his most “I want to be Jack Nicholson” levels here. It’s not terrible; it’s just pronounced what he is going for. I think paired with Ryder, he shines. Early in casting, names like Justine Bateman and Jennifer Connelly were brought up for the role of Veronica. I have a hard time seeing them mesh with Slater as Ryder does. I also think Shannen Doherty is outstanding here as Heather Duke. I mostly know her from passively watching Beverly Hills 90210 when it was on in the house as a kid, and I don’t really remember noticing her much. Like Ryder, Doherty feels like she gets the role she is playing; thus, it comes off as effortless in the performance.

There are a lot of films and shows people will call “smart,” and when I see them, I wonder what they mean by that word. In Heathers’ case, it is a brilliant film because it doesn’t talk down to its audience. The teenage characters are not portrayed as dumb, just selfish & nasty. We see why they are this way often through their parents. J.D.’s dad works in explosives, and their interactions inform the audience why the young man is so angry and destructive. Ryder’s character is extremely complex, feeling empathy for the people the Heathers mock & bully and understanding the benefits of being accepted by them. It reflects the reality of hierarchical structure through a biting satirical lens.

The collapse of Veronica and J.D.’s relationship adds to that complexity. We understand why she would be attracted to a guy like him as he is so unlike the beefy jocks that dominate her school. He also satisfies her base desires of sex and revenge. However, she’s not amoral, and she inevitably realizes that she has descended a bleak, nihilistic path. The conflict that arises between them is what keeps us watching. If it had just been a movie about fighting bullies, it would have been another one to toss onto the pile of 80s high school fare. The clash between the lovers propels it into an entirely different realm.

Heathers has also aged remarkably well compared to many other high school flicks. When I look at John Hughes’ output, I see that they are fun movies, but ultimately, they are a positive reflection of white suburbia in the 1980s. This film outlines the types of people that are still very present today. The fatphobia of the Heathers is something we sadly haven’t left behind. J.D. has become a very prominent type of young man. Imagine what he would have been like fueled by incel/alpha male online discourse. Seeing him pull a gun in the middle of the cafeteria certainly has a different emotional effect on the audience now. 

Heathers says some bold things about the American high school experience, and I assume some parents lost their minds when they heard about or saw this movie. The truth can often be uncomfortable to take in. It would never have worked if the movie had just been dark for shock value. A lot of work is put into balancing that darkness with humor, and the comedy here is as sharp as everything else. It’s clear many films have tried to pick from Heathers’ success to varying degrees – Clueless and Mean Girls come to mind – but I don’t find either have done a better job than this film.