Heathers

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

It's shockingly funny - you don't sit there deciding to laugh. Your own laughter catches you by surprise. [14 Apr 1989]

Washington Post Rita Kempley

More than just one of the best movies so far this year, it is a revolution in young-adult entertainment.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Wickedly funny. In fact, Heathers may be the nastiest, cruelest fun you can have without actually having to study law or gird leather products. If movies were food, Heathers would be a cynic's chocolate binge.

Film Threat Brad Laidman

This is an amazing black satire filled with vicious biting words that snap like firecrackers.

Variety Staff (Not Credited)

Daniel Waters' enormously clever screenplay blazes a trail of originality through the dead wood of the teen-comedy genre.

Newsweek David Ansen

Lehmann isn't in perfect control - the movie gets off to a flat-footed start, and the conclusion is chaotic - but when Heathers hits its stride, it reaches wild and original comic heights. [2 April 1989]

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Director Michael Lehmann made a stunning debut with this sharp satire of teen cliques.

USA Today Mike Clark

It's a tough entry into the tough black-comic genre; don't be surprised if it becomes a classic. [31 March 1989]

Empire Emma Cochrane

Michael Lehmann’s feature debut introduced the world to Christian Slater at his Jack Nicholson, subversive best and gave Winona Ryder a career-high role.

Wall Street Journal Julie Salamon

Heathers gave me the creeps but it also made me laugh. This bizarre variation on that Hollywood staple, the teen movie, is one weird original. [30 Mar 1989 p.A12(E)]

Chicago Tribune Dave Kehr

The sheer outrageousness of its attitude is enough to make Heathers a very welcome relief in a field dominated by sanctimonious and second-hand virtue. [31 March 1989]

Time Richard Corliss

If Michael Lehmann's direction were a bit more astute, the movie could be the classic genre mutation it aims to be: Andy Hardy meets "Badlands." [17 April 1989]

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

As snappy and assured as it is mean-spirited. Its originality extends well beyond the limits of ordinary high school histrionics and into the realm of the genuinely perverse.

TV Guide Staff (Not Credited)

Dark, cynical, but deliciously funny, Heathers is a fascinating look not just at high school but at the way we look at high school.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

What sets Heathers apart from less intelligent teenage movies is that it has a point of view toward this subject matter - a bleak, macabre and bitingly satirical one.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The flamboyantly filmed story makes some telling points about adolescent life. But despite its oh-so-cynical mannerisms, it falls all over itself to flatter an allegedly self-absorbed and self-pitying teen audience. [7 April 1989]

The New Yorker Pauline Kael

Yes, it's a collection of barbs and sick jokes, but it's not fun, and it lacks a punch line...The young, inexperience director, Michael Lehmann, doesn't find the right mood for the gags. [17 Apr 1989]

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Succeeds at least in being offbeat, but its inanities and glib pretensions are so thick that it mainly comes across as tacky and contrived.

Los Angeles Times Sheila Benson

Unfortunately, director Michael Lehmann's point of view is swivel-mounted: He doesn't have the courage of his cynicism. [31 Mar 1989]