February 18–25, 1999

movie shorts

Jawbreaker

High school is a bitch. This fundamental truth is the premise of too many teen-aimed movies. The staleness of the concept is pretty much beside the point, however, given that the audience experiencing such bitch-ness is continually new. And so, writer-director Darren Stein's first feature doesn't try to be original. Instead, it quotes from previous, easily recognizable versions, like Heathers and Carrie. When, during a "girlish" prank, a huge jawbreaker accidentally lodges in a Reagan High School diva's throat, her friends—Rose McGowan, Rebecca Gayheart, and Julie Benz—expend terrific energies to cover up their part in the death and effect changes in remaining-diva-rankings. A witness is seduced into the group (Judy Evans Greer as a sad dishrag version of Winona in Heathers) Detective Pam Grier arrives to investigate, William Katt looks baffled as an earnest parent, and Tatyana Ali smiles a lot as an irrelevant cheerleader (unfortunately, not unlike Lil Kim's part in She's All That: let's pray that such casting of young black women musical artists as cheerleaders is not a trend). Jawbreaker offers no new insights into teen hell. But it does feature McGowan's offscreen partner, Marilyn Manson, in an appropriately yucky role, having sex with McGowan in the dead girl's bed.

-Cindy Fuchs