Latex Movie Review - Jawbreaker

Smack in between Michael Lehrmann's classic dark 1989 comedy Heathers and Tina Fey's 2004 comedy Mean Girls was Daerren Stein's 1999 comedy Jawbreaker. The evolution of a now formulaic story of a clique of evil high school girls deemed the most popular. The formula story usually ends with the bitch leader of the clique being exposed to the rest of the school for who she really is by another now reformed clique member. But while both Heathers and Mean Girls found critical praise, Jawbreaker was universally panned by critics. Courtney Shayne ( Rose McGowan ) is the queen bee of a nameless clique of popular hot girls that also includes Julie Freedman ( Rebecca Gayheart ), Marcia Fox ( Julie Benz ) and Elizabeth Purr ( Charlotte Ayanna ). On the morning of Elizabeth's 17th birthday masked men break into her room, tie her up and throw her into the trunk of a car. Once she is locked in the trunk the masks and cloaks are removed to reveal that the intruders were actually Courtney, Julie and Marcia pulling an annual birthday prank. They plan to take Elizabeth for a birthday breakfast at a local diner, but when they open the trunk they discover that Elizabeth is dead, having choked to death on a jawbreaker that Courtney had shoved in her mouth before gaging her. The girls immediately concoct a plan to return Elizabeth to her bedroom and make it look like she was killed while having rough sex. But since Elizabeth had been absent from school the principal decided to give her homework to a nerdy student named Fern Mayo ( Judy Greer ) and bring it to Elizabeth's house. When Fern gets there she walks in and stumbles onto the girls arranging Elizabeth's corpse. The girls grab Fern, and in order to shut her up Courtney promises to give her a makeover and allow her to join their clique. Fern agrees and is transformed into a hot blonde called Vylette. After Elizabeth's body is discovered by her parents the police launch an investigation lead by Detective Vera Cruz ( Pam Grier, the only highlight of this movie being her in the cast. ) While this is going on Julie is racked with guilt and ends up leaving the clique while Vylette becomes carried away with her new found popularity and turns into a threat for Courtney to overthrow her throne as the clique's queen bee. The predictable climax of the movie has Courtney being exposed as Elizabeth's killer at the school prom. Not really a spoiler as you can see that one coming a mile away.

The one thing I can't stand in comedies is when the director decides to put goofy sound effects in the soundtrack, such as when a character realizes he did something stupid and you hear a "boing" sound effect. These sound effects are never funny, and once I start hearing them then I am immediately turned off by the film. You get the goofy sound effects in the beginning of Jawbreaker. Aside from failing to be funny, Darren Stein fails to capitalize on the movie's few good points. After leaving the clique Julie begins to rummage through old pictures and finds one of her and Fern when they were younger. Calling Fern ( Vylette ) up she begins to reminisce with her on how they were once close friends and how they somehow grew apart. Then just like that the subplot is abandoned when Fern gets a call on the other line from Courtney, effectively ending the touching phone call with Julie. The police in this movie are portrayed as completely inept. Julie's guilt gets the best of her and she goes to the police station to confess, only for Detective Cruz to tell her that she does not believe the confession and they now have a suspect in custody. Julie mentions that Elizabeth was a virgin, something that the coroner should have easily discovered disproving the rough sex theory. Elizabeth was left in the trunk of a car for half a day, and most of her bruises were received post mortem, but for some reason the coroner does not detect this either. If you had never seen the films Heathers, Mean Girls, The Craft, Carrie or Jennifer's Body then you may find Jawbreaker slightly entertaining. Otherwise this is a lightweight formula movie that you have probably seen done much better in a different movie.

THE SCENE:
I was suggested this movie on a promise that Rebecca Gayheart wears a latex dress. How could I pass that up? Thing is I first saw this movie years ago and did not remember any such dress existing. It turns out it does not. What Rebecca does wear is what could be a blue latex skirt which you first notice at 8 minutes into the movie. That is about it for Rebecca. Once the other girls dump her as a friend she stops wearing sexy clothing and begins to dress down for the rest of the film. Although I should mention that she wears a light blue leather jacket beginning at 26 minutes, and leather pants ( hardly noticed as the sun is behind her ) at 1 hour 4 minutes. The other girls wear plenty of skin tight clothes throughout the movie which is worth the look. As for clothing in the fetish category, Rose McGowan is seen in what looks like a green leather dress at 1 minute into the movie ( the same scene repeated as a flashback at 50 minutes ). Unfortunately it is brief and while she is walking towards the camera the film cuts to other characters before she gets close enough for a good look. Rose also wears purple satin Capri pants with a tight purple sweater at 25 minutes, a blue snakeskin halter top with black pants at 45 minutes, a red leather miniskirt with a blue turtleneck sweater-top at the 1 hour mark and a shimmering blue top at 1 hour 7 minutes of a material I can not identify. But her best outfit is unfortunately barely visible. She wears a purple metallic latex skirt and a purple satin corset top at 54 minutes. ( For those who get the DVD with extras there is also the music video Yoo Hoo from the Imperial Teen which features Rose wearing a pink satin bodysuit. ) Julie Benz is limited to a long pink leather skirt and mixed color satin top at the 1 hour mark. The breakout fetish fashionista here is Judy Greer who's outfits include a pink metallic top and red satin skirt at 45 minutes and again in the same outfit at 55 minutes, A barely visible pink metallic skirt with red wife beater top at 56 minutes followed a few seconds later with her wearing pink satin Capri pants and a purple sleeveless shirt, and a full late 70's style satin outfit comprising of red pants and jacket with a purple spandex sports bra underneath. For those of you who are fans of the Donnas, they make a cameo as the band hired to perform at the prom starting at 1 hour 11 minutes. Lead Brett Anderson wears black leather pants and a purple "Donna A" t-shirt while bass guitarist Allison Robertson wears purple metallic pants and a red "Donna R" t-shirt.