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Jawbreaker puts a new spin on "accidental murder." Three of the most popular girls at Ronald Reagan High School "kidnap" their fourth friend, the sweet Liz Purr (Charlotte Roldan, a former Miss Teen USA), on her birthday and plan to surprise her with some innocent fun. However, their version of kidnapping includes shoving a namesake of the movie, a jawbreaker, into her mouth, covering her mouth with duct tape and tossing her into the trunk of a car. Ever so suprisingly, when they open the trunk Liz has choked to death on the sweet candy...
Panicked, the girls decide to return her to her bed and make it look like she has been raped. In the process, the school outcast Fern Mayo (newcomer Judy Evans Greer) stops by Liz's house and unwittingly overhears the girls discussing the murder. But the unflappable Courtney Shayne (Rose McGowan) makes Fern a deal she can't refuse: instant popularity in return for her silence. Thus Courtney creates the vivacious "Vylette" as Fern's alter-ego, and her homely self is cast aside...
...crass shallowness and utter lack of remorse and is thus ostracized from the group. Truly a person left to "the Karen Carpenter table, "Cue camerapan over to a table containing several emaciatedgirls sitting bleakly with no food in sight. Moresubtly, as the girls create a crime scene in Liz'sbedroom with the corpse, the song blaring in thebackground is, ironically enough. The Cars "LetThe Good Times Roll." It's at those moments whenJawbreaker lives up to the classicdefinition of a "black comedy...
...andmesmerizing performance by McGowan. She playsCourtney as a classic bitch, the type of girl notbothered by anybody or anything. Neither pressurefrom the police about the murder (Pam Grier as afirst-rate tough cop), nor having sex with MarilynManson (McGowans' real life boyfriend, thoughfrighteningly sans makeup in the movie) in Liz'sbed while her corpse stagnates underneath it,unnerves...
...performance that makesJawbreaker more of a horror film thananything else. Courtney is unstable and brash, andthough Liz's death was an accident, another murderat her hands would not be inconceivable. Thehorror movie element is intensified by theperiodic dizzying flashbacks with stop-actionfilming and bizarre lighting that highlights Liz'sbruised body and the discovery of her body by herparents. And of course, the mere setting of highschool alone also makes this film fit the horrorgenre. If it isn't a ghastly retainer (worn byper-"Vylette" Fern) or snobby cheerleaders (one ofwhom is played by Tatyana Ali '02 ), then it'sthe feeling...