The Big 2-9

Aside from the fact that this day sealed my fate as the ”Never Gets a ‘Happy Birthday’ from the Teacher or Your Classmates Because School’s Out for Summer Kid,” June 28 never seemed like a terribly interesting day to be born. Until I realized that’s also the day sublimely talented actors Kathy Bates, John Cusack, the late [...]

Groovers and Mobsters Present: The Dark Comedy

Horace Walpole had an enduring observation about the world, calling it “a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think.” Who says it can’t be both at once? Certainly not the writers, directors, producers and stars of films that fall into the grimace-with-laughter dark comedy genre. From the emotionally violent to the downright macabre, dark comedies buff a funny and acidic sheen on the [...]

No. 19: “Heathers” (1989)

“It’s one thing to want someone out of your life, but it’s another thing to serve them a wake-up cup full of liquid drainer.” ~~Veronica Sawyer “Hell is a teenage girl.” It’s inconceivable that Diablo Cody, when she penned that line for “Jennifer’s Body,” didn’t have visions of Daniel Waters’ caustic high school satire “Heathers” dancing [...]

What’s your damage, Fox TV?

The unthinkable has happened, and I hesitate to tell you about it because then you’ll be thinking these same wretched thoughts, too. But misery loves company, so ready yourself to be hit by the big, fat, yellow Truth Express: Fox TV is turning “Heathers” – that acidic, twisted teen comedy classic from 1989 that inspired countless (and inferior) [...]

15 bitchin’ high school movie lines

I blame John Hughes (bless his wounded, dark, departed soul) for my inexplicable fondness for teen movies. He had me at “hot beef injection.” After that, I embraced his movies with all the zeal that a weird, slightly morbid, terminally misunderstood high school pariah could. “The Breakfast Club,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” “Some Kind of Wonderful,” “Pretty in Pink” — [...]

Real-life movie moment

The movie: “Heathers” (1988); dir. by Michael Lehmann; starring Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannon Doherty, Kim Walker. The moment: I found my glasses … the day after I picked up my new ones. The correlation: My initial reaction — and I quote — went something like: “Well, f**k me gently with a chainsaw.”

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