JAWBREAKER (1998)
A Film Review
Copyright Dragan Antulov 2004
"Power perceived is power achieved" is the motto employed by the
protagonists of JAWBREAKER, 1999 black comedy written and
directed by Darren Stein. Courtney Shayne (played by Rose
MacGowan), Julie Freeman (played by Rebecca Gayheart), Marcie
Fox (played by Julie Benz) and Liz Purr (played by Charlotte
Ayanna) form the clique that rules over Reagan High School with the
combination of sex appeal and utter disdain for all those below their
social standing. Girls decide to celebrate Liz's 17th birthday by staging
mock kidnapping. The prank goes terribly wrong when Liz gets
accidentally choked. Courtney decides to cover everything up by
staging Liz's death to look like product of perverse sex. The only
problem is in Fern Mayo (played by Judy Greer), quiet, naive and
nerdish girl who accidentally overheard girls conspiring. Courtney
buys her silence by having her made over and adopted into their
clique. Fern is thoroughly corrupted by her new status while Julie
slowly develops the conscience, especially when the Liz's death gets
pinned on an innocent man. In the meantime, police detective Vera
Cruz (played by Pam Grier) is investigating the accident.
The plot of Stein's film looks like a clever attempt of a subversive
social commentary and satire being masked as a teen comedy. What
audience sees is actually quite the opposite - formulaic and
exploitative teen comedy being masked as a social commentary and
satire. Reason for that is in incredibly uninspired script that recycles
1980s teen comedy cliches and mixes them with those of 1990s youth-
oriented films. The cast, chosen more on the basis on looks than
talent, can't be of much use, and same can be said of Pam Grier,
whose iconic presence is wasted in useless police investigation
subplot. Stein's direction is often too irritating, but the worst thing is
in the details of Courtney's cover up which display unenviable level
of intelligence. In doing so, Stein probably tries to
make JAWBREAKER fit this film's presumed teen audience, but
teenagers, as well as the rest of the audience, really don't need to be
insulted in such manner.
RATING: 2/10 (-)
Review written on October 11th 2004
Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax
http://film.purger.com - Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom/Movie Reviews in
Croatian
http://www.ofcs.org - Online Film Critics Society
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