I’m so thankful to my friend Jen, who, after I made a desperate IG plea, suggested I watch and write about Jawbreaker (1999, 85 minutes). It’s been a few years since I’ve indulged in the cult classic. It felt exactly like the right time considering I recently watched Do Revenge, which is the most recent entry into the unique subgenre of “young girls and their propensity for cruelty”. Also, it happens to be an important Queer film and it’s Pride Month (Happy Pride!)
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In Jawbreaker, ultra-popular girls Courtney (Rose McGowan), Julie (Rebecca Gayheart) and Marcie (Julie Benz) accidentally kill their best friend Liz (Charlotte Ayanna) in a birthday prank gone wrong, they work together to cover up the truth. The plan goes awry, however, when Julie has a stroke of conscience, class nerd Fern (Judy Greer) catches them in the act, and Detective Vera Cruz (Pam Grier) shows up to solve the case.
*Insert girlish scream here*
I love this movie. A cult classic by definition, making only $3.1 million against its $3.5 million budget, Jawbreaker really didn’t pick up steam until it was released on VHS and then ritualistically passed around at sleepovers. This is how I came to know and love this movie, too. It became a rite of passage for middle school girls alongside horror flicks like Scream. And while not technically a horror (though some may argue it is), its flippant attitude toward death and murder did not endear it to parents and most adult figures. Ebert gave it 1 ½ stars and also misidentified Judy Greer (???) and the review is a pretty strong indication of what old, straight, white people were thinking about this one.
At the same time as my young-girls-like-horror-too awakening, Jawbreaker was circulating in Queer communities and providing a different but parallel salve to Queer kids everywhere. Director Darren Stein, a gay man himself, had a clear vision for his campy, horror flick that picked up where Heathers left off. Pushing the limits of Hollywood’s comfortability with femininity, drag, and sexuality. Naturally this kind of work was maligned both by misunderstanding from the white-male dominated film culture and a, dare I say it, hatred toward women-led films aka “chick-flicks.”
Visually, Jawbreaker is highly stylized, campy, with just a hint (a sprinkling really) of surrealism. In an interview Stein said, “It was candy colored and lush and I knew it had exceeded even my expectations.” The candy-colored sets and costumes were a conscious choice to subvert the horror qualities of the movie. Stein famously requested absolutely no black in costuming. The looks are all very much 50s filtered through the 90s. A pencil skirt, but made from rubber. Pedal pushers but paired with a crop top that says “Bitch” on it. Dazed did a great piece on the costuming if you want to dig into this further.
Like most high school movies, the impeccably dressed and the genetically gifted rule the school and often do so with an iron fist. There is no fear like that of losing reign on your hallway kingdom. Jawbreaker’s ringleader, queen Bee, boss bitch - what have you - is Courtney Shayne played by an excellent Rose McGowan. I will in fact argue, right now, that this is her best role. I love her in Doom Generation, but the energy and electricity she brings to Courtney leaves me gasping for breath every time. In an interview with Dazed, McGowan shares that she based her entire character after Gene Tierney in Leave Her to Heaven. She found Tierney’s character to be chillingly logic based, saying, “...my only approach to Courtney was she would probably pass a lie detector, it makes complete sense in her head.” And that is exactly what I love about her performance so much. It’s completely devoid of emotion, of panic, of fear. She sees an obstacle in front of what she wants, and she will do whatever it takes to clear that obstacle.
Countering Courtney is Rebecca Gayheart’s Julie, who is struck irreparably by her conscience. She wants to go to the police as soon as possible but Courtney soon pulls her in and under so that her only way out is to find and provide cold hard proof that Liz was murdered. She is all of the emotion that Courtney does not or cannot feel. There is guilt, fear, sadness, anxiety. She even finds herself falling in love with theater kid Zack (Chad Christ) in the middle of the chaos. She is an emblem for human feeling and Gayheart portrays this without an ounce of irony. While the world around her devolves into some sort of camp nightmare, Julie remains our center.
This brings us to Fern AKA Vylette. I mentioned earlier that Fern catches the girls with Liz’s body. Her idol is dead, she goes into shock and though she tries to flee, the girls catch up with her. Courtney makes her an offer she really can’t refuse. She will make her pretty. Popular. Special. All for the price of keeping her mouth shut. Fern agrees and goes through one of the greatest movie transformations of all time becoming Vylette. A hyper-feminine BITCH (as noted by her license plate and crop top). With a change in hair color, makeup, and clothing Fern transforms into a whole new person. A change that is very akin to drag and has been studied and revered as such. As Vylette, Fern is finally seen. And she carries on this way until she climbs too close to the top, too close to Courtney, who exposes her. Julie is there to pick up the pieces. (Natch.)
By the end of the movie, it looks like Courtney is going to win. She’s successfully convinced Detective Cruz that a random man (Marilyn Manson) from the bar raped and murdered Liz. Courtney goes so far as to bring the man back to Liz’s bedroom to have sex and leave behind physical evidence. I wanted more out of Cruz (and Pam Grier) but will accept that she was really doing just a cameo and the gift was her presence. So, Courtney’s on her way to prom and Julie is feeling defeated when a box of Liz’s things gets dropped off at Julie’s house. And wouldn’t you know it?! Courtney accidentally recorded herself on one of those fun 90s greeting cards we used to have.
This is where it all goes down, Courtney’s ultimate demise. By now Fern (Greer) and Julie have teamed up and they plan to play her card recording to the whole school during the Prom Queen announcement. What I love about this choice is that in their world, being humiliated at prom is the worst thing that could happen to you. We don’t see cops rush in to handcuff her and Detective Cruz doesn’t have a witty one-liner (in fact she’s not even present). Instead, Courtney is exposed on stage during her acceptance speech and it flips her entire world upside down.
The scene is beautifully done as she seemingly floats out of the room while her classmates pelt her with corsages. Her perfect makeup smears. It is her end. The fall from her throne. And Julie is there to capture it all with the perfect Polaroid snap. We see Marcie (Benz), Courtney’s best follower, crawling and hiding under tables, terrified for her own downfall. While we get a softer version of Fern’s Vylette. Fernlette? Vy-lite? Something like that.
When we were watching this at sleepovers we had no idea we were consuming something so subversive and special. To us, it tapped into something different and wild inside of us we didn’t yet understand. Looking back now over 20 years later, I can see so clearly what this story did for so many of us. No matter who you are, you must have a movie like this. What’s something you watched at a pivotal point in your life that changed you, but that you didn’t realize the effects of until years later? Let me know in the comments.
I thought I knew this one well but honestly just rewatched the trailer after reading this and was kinda surprised how little I remembered. But even just from those 2 minutes...it's such an Amanda movie ;-)
I haven't seen this movie in AGES and I am so excited to read the article on the costuming today over coffee! Keep em' coming!