Heathers
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Metascore
73

Generally favorable reviews - based on 19 Critics What's this?

User Score
7.3

Generally favorable reviews- based on 23 Ratings

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  • Starring: ,
  • Summary: A razor sharp black comedy about high school politics centers on Veronica Sawyer (Ryder) who joins an exclusive clique of popular girls named Heather (Walker, Doherty, Falk) and plays along with her new boyfriend J.D. (Slater) in a series of pranks which turn into a series of murders made to look like suicides.… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 19
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 19
  3. Negative: 0 out of 19
  1. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    100
    It's shockingly funny - you don't sit there deciding to laugh. Your own laughter catches you by surprise. [14 Apr 1989]
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  2. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    100
    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.
  3. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: David Ansen
    90
    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]
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  4. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Julie Salamon
    80
    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)]
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  5. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Staff (Not Credited)
    70
    Dark, cynical, but deliciously funny, Heathers is a fascinating look not just at high school but at the way we look at high school.
  6. Time
    Reviewed by: Richard Corliss
    70
    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]
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  7. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    40
    Succeeds at least in being offbeat, but its inanities and glib pretensions are so thick that it mainly comes across as tacky and contrived.

See all 19 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 9
  3. Negative: 2 out of 9
  1. AwesomeReviewer
    Mar 26, 2012
    8
    The movie starts simple enough, a bunch of high school girls in the cafeteria playing horrible pranks on innocent girls, just for laughs. However, it takes a quick dark turn, someone pulls a gun out and shoots two guys (luckily blanks) and quickly someone else gets killed. When it started off I thought maybe this was all in the head of the heroine, but boy am I wrong. As the movie progresses it becomes darker, but it retains it humor even in the more gruesome scenes. It becomes a movie about how society has one general leader and no matter how many times you kill this leader a new one grows in its place like a hydra. The film takes about the seriousness of suicide and pokes fun at how people react to it. It is a bold movie and the payoffs are well worth it. The film becomes a satire for our society in a high school setting.

    In the beginning I was a little disturbed when the movie took its dark turn, but when I caught on to what it was about, I was enjoying it very much. The director does a great job of creating the tension, but not forgetting the humor. The script is incredibly smart and it never feels as though as the movie is preachy or talking down to its audience. While it loses what its trying to in the middle and right before the climax, it rounds itself up fairly well near the end. I was creeped out by the movie towards the end and well after it was over.

    The characters are all lively and they poke fun at figures n society. From hippies, to rebels, to people who think they are better than everyone, to the average man, â    … Expand
  2. heybuddymovies
    Aug 1, 2011
    8
    first saw Heatherâ
  3. j30
    Nov 11, 2011
    8
    Here's an 80's gem that's very entertaining and has some great quotes. It 's almost a guilty pleasure of mine that's hard to ignore. I can't really recommend this to anyone that is easily offended.… Expand
  4. Summersausage
    Jan 12, 2013
    3
    Thsi movie was a whinny complaint about how everybody is mean, and then a dramatization of angry people doing stupid things. I do not want to see this over dramatic 80's dribble ever again. It was not smart it was people with a good head on their shoulders throwing it away because they are incompetent.… Expand
  5. Charles_Peterso
    Jul 3, 2012
    0
    The 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.… Expand

See all 9 User Reviews

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