Welcome back to *Cash Register Alert*, the newsletter about all things ‘90s and ‘00s nostalgia, named after the best sound on AOL Instant Messenger. Today we are diving into one of the most chaotic teen films of the Y2K era: JAWBREAKER. The drama! The fashion! The crimes! Get ready. And if you haven’t yet subscribed (it’s free!), hit the button below so you don’t miss a single trip down the ‘90s and ‘00s rabbit hole.
I’m almost fairly certain that Jawbreaker was one of those movies I first watched at a sleepover at a way-too-young age, unbeknownst to my parents at the time. I am entirely certain that, at one point, I owned a VHS tape (yes) that contained Cruel Intentions and Jawbreaker back to back, and it came with me to subsequent sleepovers at all times. We’ll get into Cruel Intentions another day, but for now, let’s focus on the wild kidnapping-turned-murder-coverup of Reagan High.
When I recently rewatched this 1999 gem, it was with someone who had never seen it, so naturally I had to explain the plot beforehand to really sell it. “It’s about these popular girls who play a prank on their best friend for her birthday. They kidnap her and are going to take her out for breakfast but then they accidentally kill her instead. Because, oh yeah, when they kidnap her...they gag her...with a jawbreaker.”
I have a lot of questions about the execution of this plan, namely the fact that Courtney (played by Rose McGowan) decides to gag Liz with a jawbreaker without even consulting her other two friends (Julie, played by Rebecca Gayheart, and Marcie, portrayed by Julie Benz). Surely one of them would have been like, Hey maybe that’s not the best idea. She might choke and die? Like, did this occur to Courtney at all? Either way, she doesn’t seem to care a whole lot that it happens. As she puts it, “I killed Liz! I killed the teen dream! Deal with it.” OK.
Arguably one of the greatest—and most unhinged—aspects of this movie is Judy Greer’s character, Fern AKA Vylette. When we’re first introduced to Fern, she’s this mousy, shy, nerdy girl who practically faints when a teacher asks her to bring Liz’s homework to her house the day she doesn’t show up for school (because, y’know, she’s got a jawbreaker lodged in her throat). Of course, when she arrives, she overhears the other girls talking about how they killed Liz so Courtney offers her a deal: She’ll turn Fern into “one of them.”
But the best part isn’t just that they give Fern a makeover à la Clueless. They literally give her an entirely new identity, complete with a new name—Vylette. As a teen, I remember thinking this was cool, this idea of just becoming someone totally different and leaving your “old” self behind. Poof! Magic. But watching it back as an adult, I just need to know—how did she think she was actually going to get away with this? Did she create a new social security card? Vylette is a “transfer student,” but where did Fern go? What happens when she applies to college? Does she apply as Vylette? Or Fern? What about when she needs to get her drivers license? What’s going to happen when her parents come in for parent-teacher conferences? What—
OK, I digress.
Because honestly, the one thing that distracted me from these questions was the fashion in this movie. I...think it takes place in the late 90s when it was filmed, because they all have flip cell phones, but the outfits are clearly from a different era. There are some scenes where the characters are wearing traditional Y2K aesthetics, but for the most part, it frequently looks like they’re the Pink Ladies from Grease. As it turns out, costume designer Vikki Barrett (who also worked on Clueless and Romy & Michelle’s High School Reunion) sourced 1950s kitsch style as an inspiration for the film’s wardrobe, with a lot of the pieces coming from L.A. vintage shops.
Of course, it would be impossible to talk about the fashion in Jawbreaker without focusing on the progression of Vylette’s outfits, which culminates in the scene when Courtney slams her into the mirror in the bathroom. In that scene, she’s wearing skin-tight glittery hot pink pants and a matching jacket on top of a pink crop top with the word “Bitch” written in pretty cursive. Anyone want to do a group Halloween costume this year? Cause I’ve got mine set.
Like a lot of other late ‘90s/early ‘00s films, there are parts of Jawbreaker that definitely have not aged well. Plenty of cringey and offensive dialogue, and, well, I’ll just put a big “yikes” over the whole scene/subplot with “The Stranger.”
Although the movie ends with plenty of loose threads (namely, are Julie, Marcie, and Fern also going to get in trouble for covering up a murder? Yes, right?), it is pretty satisfying to see Courtney get caught in front of the entire school thanks to that damning recordable greeting card confession played over the loudspeaker at prom. It’s like Carrie without the blood. The part where she slow-motion walks through the gym as the other students throw corsages at her and she cries and her eye makeup runs down her face? #Art.
And if you thought that Jawbreaker was a ‘90s relic destined to stay in the past forever, think again! In 2017, it was reported that E! is developing a TV series reboot of the movie, with original director Darren Stein on board to write the script. As for the plot, it’s going to follow an entirely new group of friends who are forced to cover up a murder when someone is accidentally killed at a bachelorette party. As Courtney would say, it sounds “peachy f*cking keen.”
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