goobergoeslive

[goobergoeslive]

On Heather Duke

I’m starting to work out some of my feelings on the musical and why it bothers me, and one of my conclusions is the depiction of the Heathers themselves. All of them, but especially Heather Duke, have their depth ripped from them. Analysis below the cut.

Keep reading

#heathers #heathers the movie #heather duke #heathers meta #heathers analysis #not a liveblog #long post #but really good and in depth! #aligns with some of my own conclusions and then some #while also smarter and more coherent than my stuff lol

[goobergoeslive]

A little bonus: a small Veronica Sawyer I drew, so I could have an appropriate avatar for the liveblogs.

I think it looks cute and close enough to the character, although I feel I didn't manage to quite capture her likeness, even in this very simplified style!

#heathers 1989 #heathers movie #Heathers (1989) #Veronica Sawyer #fanart

[goobergoeslive]

HeatherBloggin Part 16 (End)

We're coming up near the end, and during their final confrontation, Veronica finally gives JD a swift kick in the nuts. Good for her!

The track that plays during this scene is really good. It has popped up in other parts of the movie, but with a different arrangement, and here it helps elevate the tense atmosphere. Because really, considering what has happened so far, would it be so surprising if JD actually succeeded? And even though I already know the outcome, this part keeps me glued to the screen every time.

“You want to clean the slate as much as I do. All right, so maybe I am killing everyone in the school… because nobody loves me! Let’s face it, alright?! The only place different social types can genuinely get along with each other is in heaven.”

I like how, immediately after this line, it cuts back to the pep rally in the gym, where everyone in school is getting along.

“Seriously, people are going to look at the ashes of Westerburg and say “Now there is a school that self-destructed not because society didn’t care, but because the school was society! It’s pretty deep, huh?”

JD truly is a man of Society.

But he does tell Veronica which button to press to turn off the bomb. And not only that (and this is something that I only noticed in a recent viewing) when he lunges forwards and Veronica shoots him on instinct, he deliberately jams his switchblade into the explosives in such a way that the timer stops.

Which I think is the reason why Veronica says that what she wants is “cool guys like him out of her life”. And I do think she is being sarcastic with the word “cool” here, but I also it’s her recognising that, for once, JD did the right thing. And this also makes Veronica leaving JD behind with the bomb make more sense, since she never confirmed if he was indeed dead. If she didn’t believe he wouldn’t try to set the bomb off, I don’t think she would have just left him like that, since it would have been massively irresponsible and very careless. 

When Veronica goes upstairs into the gym, she is greeted with cheers and applause, and yeah, I know that in-universe they aren’t for her, but I can’t help but feel that the juxtaposition is deliberate, as if the narrative is congratulating her on her victory.

“Color me impressed! You, uh, you fucked me up pretty bad, Veronica. You, uhm… You got power. Power I didn’t think you had. The slate is clean.”

JD then lives his final moments, as he waits for the bomb he set up on himself to explode. Veronica watches on, not making any attempt to stop him, which is kind of cruel, but honestly, after what JD put her through, I don’t blame her.

The gag with JD having to bonk on the timer when it stops running is pretty solid, too.

I don't have anything to add here, I just like this shot.

Veronica then takes the red scrunchie away from Duke and puts it on her hair, signifying her role as the new “leader”, she’s the “new sheriff in town”. But just because she has taken the crown of Heather, doesn’t mean she will slip into the same attitude as Chandler and Duke.

As Veronica’s first act immediately afterwards is to invite Martha to hang out with her and watch some movies. Instead of being a megabitch, she chose to be a friend. For the first time, we actually hear Martha speak, as she happily accepts Veronica's invitation.

The “New Happiness” banner in the background is torn off, and Veronica and Martha walk down the hall together, having an amicable conversation. And thus the movie ends.

And this is does it for Heathers! Despite this being the end of the movie, I am still not done talking about it. But I will save my thoughts for some other occasion, as this liveblog as taken a lot of my time already! Thank you for reading along thus far, I assure you that there are more ramblings coming up.

#heatherblogging #cw: blood #cw: guns #cw: suicide

[goobergoeslive]

HeatherBlogging Part 15

Veronica awakens from her disturbing dream, and realizes that it’s time to take action. But first she needs to buy some time, before figuring out what exactly to do next.

True to his threats, JD sneaks into Veronica’s room, ready to kill her, but finds that he is “too late”, as Veronica has done the deed herself.

Silly JD, it’s only romantic if both people want to kill each other and are equally into it!

Conveniently for Veronica, JD reveals his villainous master plan to her supposed hanged body, which is to blow up the school with its entire staff and student body in it. And, if things had gone his way, I assume both he and Veronica would have been taken along the ride as well.

I’ve just now realized that JD left his gun on Veronica’s bed after he left. And like, I don’t think it unintentionally got in the shots, since it’s present in at least two of them, and we get a pretty good view of it. I mean, I know that he is planning to die the next day, but didn’t it occur to him that leaving an unclean gun lying around in the room of someone who had supposedly hung themselves would be super incriminating? I guess it’s there to explain where Veronica got the gun she uses near the end, though before I had assumed she kept the gun she had shot Ram with, so I really don’t know what’s the deal here.

Back to school the next day, and I don’t think Veronica had much of a plan thought out, considering she barges in and, though looking for JD, doesn’t seem to want him to find out she’s alive just yet. And considering that he told Miss Fleming that Veronica committed suicide, it wouldn’t be surprising if someone heard about it, and would be surprised to find Veronica was still alive. And yeah, no one else really talks to JD, but there was still a very high likelihood he would have found out that she was currently walking around school.

It takes a while, but Veronica eventually realizes exactly how JD plans to blow up the school: by pulling the same stunt his dad did, starting with a chain reaction from the boiler room.

The reprise of Dead Girl Walking in the Musical adaptation is a bop, and I have listened to it several times, but cutting out the part where JD is caught so off-guard by Veronica’s appearance that he says “I knew that loose was too noose” is criminal.

It is a little strange how the blue lighting seems to have shifted to JD for a while now. Perhaps it is some sort of indication of how blue was actually “JD’s side” and not really Veronica’s? Or maybe it’s just to create a better contrast between the scenes inside the boiler room, and the ones above in the gym: the heated but unified spirit we see in the gym, clashing with the fight between JD and Veronica in the boiler room, that will determine whether everyone there will live or die.

Because you see, Veronica is about to use a red fire extinguisher to try and incapicitate JD, and red is the color of Westerburg. It is also the color of all fire extinguishers, and I am definitely starting to read too much into this.

#heatherblogging #cw: suicide mention #tw: suicide mention

[goobergoeslive]

HeatherBloggin Part 14

Another good shot, and a very cute outfit, even if it signifies that Duke has fully become the new Chandler.

Duke and Veronica meet up, and the former tries to get the latter to sign the petition as well. Veronica refuses, leading Duke to reveal that the petition was JD’s idea (which only makes it so Veronica opposes it even further).

And yeah, it is a problem when someone in power just decides they want to do terrible things, because they will most likely be able to get away with it. Duke tries to justify it by saying that anyone else in her position would have done the same. If Veronica’s old friend Betty became popular, would she still choose to hang out with her unpopular friends? And I think Heather has a point here - even people who would otherwise seem kind and reasonable can reveal themselves to be cruel, or become more cruel, if given power. But it doesn’t have to be like that, there is no force that makes it so that it must always turn out that way.

JD shows up, and for a moment it looks like Veronica is willing to go along with his plans. And this bit does make me feel a little for him; I think he genuinely wants Veronica to be by his side again. It almost makes me forget for a microsecond that he is a rat bastard who treats her terribly, but I wasn’t born yesterday, and neither was Veronica, so she elbows him right in the solar plexus and walks away.

Upon returning home that afternoon, Veronica finds out that JD swung by beforehand, and told her parents that Veronica was considering killing herself. He also left a letter to her that indicates that he himself can copy her own handwriting, which is all a roundabout way of telling her that he could very well kill her and make it look like a suicide, and it isn’t too unlikely that he will attempt to go through with it soon.

Is it even considered a red flag if you aren’t dating the guy and he is making obvious threats to your life?

I really like Winona Ryder’s acting in this particular moment. Her body language just perfectly illustrates how terrified and cornered Veronica feels, pulling herself away as JD inches closer. This part ends up being a dream, but for these few moments, I was genuinely convinced it was really happening during my first viewing, and even when I got to the scene in the kitchen, I still had some doubts.

“Tomorrow someone else is just gonna move into her place… That person could be me.”

Although depressing, I think this line speaks well for Veronica. She is admitting that she is not immune to doing wrong, and that she too can become corrupted with power. And I think this is an important step towards her later position.

Chandler’s ghost outfit is utterly atrocious. I love it.

#heatherblogging

[goobergoeslive]

HeatherBlogging Part 13

This is what I meant about the movie itself not really joking about suicide: when Heather Duke does it, it’s framed as vile, and Veronica promptly slaps her in the face for it.

Veronica and Duke have a brief argument, but Veronica ends up dropping it and the two tune in to a radio show, and to their surprise, McNamara is a caller on the show.

I just think this is a cute room and also

Very good taste in paintings, I approve!

McNamara confesses that she’s going through some hard times. It turns out that Ram’s suicide affected her on some level, she has been failing in some of her classes, and reveals her parents are divorced and implies she isn’t dealing with that very well. Veronica comments how McNamara knows how both her and Duke listen to the show, so I think this was a way that McNamara found to talk about her problems to her friends. And Duke immediately replies how she will absolutely humiliate her for it the next day, and so she does.

Duke looks redder than ever, as Veronica monologues about how she has effectively Chandler as the prime Heather.

“I’ve seen JD’s way. I’ve seen Miss Pauline Fleming’s way, and nothing has changed. I guess that’s Heather’s way…”

McNamara rushes out of the classroom, and after a while, Veronica runs after her, only to find her in the bathroom attempting to overdose on some unspecified medication. Thankfully, Veronica arrives just in time to make her spit out the medication, and the two slump against the wall and have a heart-to-heart.

“Suicide is a private thing.”

“Heather, you’re throwing your life away to become a statistic in the US-fucking-A Today. Now, that is the least private thing I can think of.”

“What about Heather and Kurt and Ram?”

“If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you?” 

“... Probably.”

“Hey now… If you were happy every day of your life you wouldn’t be a human being, you’d be a game show host.”

And you know, talking with a friend won’t magically solve all your problems, but it can be a great help. Just knowing there is someone out there who is looking out for you and that you can count on them to listen to your troubles is an invaluable thing.

This shot is super sweet, and I have a normal amount of feelings about it.

JD finally goes back to Duke with his favor. He asks her to get the entire school to sign a petition so that a popular band can play at that year’s prom. Of course, this is obviously a front for something else, but even if Duke suspects that there might be something off about it, I doubt she cares that much. She is living the dream, now that she is at the top and is worshiped by everyone. She also hands over to JD her copy of Moby Dick, which I’m not entirely sure what it signifies, but perhaps it’s symbolic to Duke discarding the one last thing that distinguished her from Chandler, thus completing her “transformation”.

#heatherblogging #tw: suicide mention #cw: suicide mention

[goobergoeslive]

HeatherBlogging Part 12

We move on to the first part of JD’s big plan: blackmailing Heather Duke so she will take up Chandler’s previous position, at the top of the school social pyramid. Which wouldn’t really require much blackmailing for her to do, but he will need her to do him an additional favor later on.

He even gives Duke the red scrunchie, presumably having taken it from Chandler’s room on the day of her death. Duke is thus ready to become the Queen.

I want to point out that, although Veronica has her share of hypocrisy, JD really isn’t any better in that regard. He is going out of his way to encourage someone who will very likely be as bad as Chandler to take up her place, somehow convinced Martha to give him the photos of her and Duke when they were kids, meaning that he just used her as a footstool to get to Duke, and thus has treated her badly like everybody else, and I know that this is all just a means to an end for his Big Plan, but it’s still hypocritical of him to be enforcing the very things he said made the school’s environment so terrible, while supposedly wanting to stop them.

Ok, this is where I elaborate on what I said about the movie showing that there might have been another side to Chandler, way back in the college party sequence. In the current scene, Veronica approaches Chandler’s old locker and pries it open. She seems mournful as she looks through Chandler’s belongings, of which includes a photo of all Heathers + Veronica, as well a series of photos of just Veronica and Chandler.

I think this isn’t just Veronica feeling remorseful for what she’s done - I think she does genuinely miss Chandler and, on some level, maybe even cared about her. Even if Chandler did terrible things, she was still Veronica’s classmate, she was a person who had her own problems going on. I don’t say this to excuse Chandler’s behavior, but rather to say that, although we’ve been presented with this overall view of Chandler as just a flat bully, she was still another teenager and her own person, and her previous actions don’t make her death any less of a hideous and unnecessary thing.

I think that the scene where Chandler spits at her own reflection in the party and this scene with the locker are thus meant to show the audience that “hey, we know this is a weird and dark highschool comedy, but even shitty teenagers are people and their deaths can be horrible things”, but not in a sense of “oh, you should forgive all teenage bullies and just let them be terrible”.

And we are on the third croquet match, where I elaborate on what I had mentioned during the second one: in this case, Veronica manages to shoot her ball against Betty’s. This means that Veronica can either take two more shots during her turn, or opt to bump her ball against Betty’s to land it in a more disadvantageous position. And Veronica does go for the two shots, which surprises Betty, since knocking her out would be “the only way to win”, but Veronica says that’s not her way.

The remaining Heathers pop up, however, and indeed, Duke is now red! McNamara seems visibly bothered by something throughout the scene, and I don’t think it’s because of Betty’s presence, but rather due to Duke’s new redness. It’s pretty obvious that Duke is unsubtly usurping Chandler's place.

A simple shot, but effective. It really captures the isolation that Martha’s been facing. The decision to start the scene with a focus on her face whilst playing the sounds of a crowd, only to pan out to this shot and cut the sound to reveal that no one else was there works very well.

Oh sure, the cameras “happened” onto your path, and it wasn’t like an entire recording team was specifically hired to film it! Veronica doesn’t buy any of that bullshit either, and is understandably angry about it.

“Before a teenager decides to kill himself there are certain facts he should know. After all, this is a decision that affects all of us, and there’s only one chance to get it right.”

You also don’t need me to tell you how grossly insensitive this is. It is, however, factually incorrect: there are several people who have attempted suicide and survived, but who attempt to commit it again at a later time.

It is at this point in the story where we get an actual suicide (attempt) that isn’t a cover up for a murder, that being Martha’s.

The third scene with Veronica and her parents also comes up, and though there are a few similarities with the previous two, besides the difference in the setting, the most marked difference is how Veronica is no longer nonchalantly talking with her parents about what’s happening. They still seem pretty indifferent to the situation at school, but Veronica no longer plays into that indifference herself.

“”Treated like human beings?” Is that what you said, little Miss Voice-of-a-Generation? Just how do you think adults act with other adults? You think it’s all just a game of doubles tennis? When teenagers complain that they want to be treated like human beings, it’s usually because they are being treated like human beings.”

I really like this little speech from Veronica’s mom, not because I agree with her, but because there is something deeply revealing about it: so far in the movie, all the drama that happens to the characters is centered around highschool. These are teenagers that are having teenage problems, which only happen in this closed environment. But that’s not 100% true, is it? Being mocked and looked down upon, suffering anxiety and depression, feeling misunderstood, these are not things that exclusively affect teenagers, it’s something that can happen to any human being in any period of their life. It’s not teenagers who aren’t being treated like human beings, but rather human beings who treat each other this way.

Even when people manage to find their way out of highschool, what guarantees that some of the same problems won’t persist? Maybe they won’t resurface in the same way, and as a person grows older, they might be able to handle them better, but that doesn’t mean other people will stop treating them like crap. They could be treated like crap in college, or in the workplace, or just by walking down the street.

Shouldn’t we instead be seeing things the other way around? Rather, the terrible things that can happen during highschool are not always exclusive to that environment, but they are shaped by what happens in the society which the school is built into (and I hate to use the word “society”, because by now it’s become kind of a meme, but I don’t know what better way to describe this). 

#heatherblogging

[goobergoeslive]

HeatherBlogging Part 11

What does “The New Happiness” even mean??? If they used that term because of how vague and meaningless it sounds, they made a good choice!

I do wonder what sort of New Age nonsense Miss Fleming tried to push in the past. Also, there were times when I got a bit confused and thought that the Heather on the right was McNamara and not Duke, because I’m utterly terrible at facial recognition and the clothes looked more yellow than green (it’s likely a pea-green that looks more yellow-ish because of the lighting).

This sort of rhetoric is sadly still prevalent today. It’s not really about mourning victims of suicide or helping people who are susceptible to it, but rather “hey, I know your pal just killed themselves, but don’t be bummed out! You don’t really need to think about why those people did what they did, or even if there is something you can do to keep others from doing the same. Don’t worry about it, just be happy, because happiness is good! :D”

“What are you talking about, huh? I mean, today was great! Chaos is great! (...) Face it, our way is the way, we scare people into not being assholes!”

But the thing is, you never actually see someone get scared into not being an asshole. Miss Fleming’s entire get-together at the cafeteria didn’t promote any actual feelings of love or compassion for anyone either - people were more interested about showing up on camera, or using the moment to prop themselves up. Back in the cafeteria scene, we even see someone who would need some actual compassion, that being Martha, hiding away under the table after witnessing the whole spectacle.

JD’s father pops up to brag about how he won the lawsuit he was having against a group of old women who were trying to preserve a building, and explains exactly how he leveled the entire building afterwards with explosives. The screen the pans to JD’s face and a slow zoom in, indicating that this just gave him an idea.

We also get some more insight into JD’s past. When he was a child, his mom walked into a building that his father was about to blow up, and as she waved goodbye at JD, she was taken along with the explosion.

We don’t get much more than this, and frankly, I don’t think it’s necessary. Considering the type of person that we have seen JD’s father to be, it wouldn’t be very surprising that his mom wouldn’t have exactly led a very happy life. It’s fucked that she left her son behind like this, though.

JD then shoots the radio after “their song” start’s playing, and this is what finally breaks it for Veronica - she decides it’s time to break up with him then and there.

I really like this line. Veronica knows she can’t take back what’s already done, but she can stop going down this path, she can choose to, at the very least, not hurt anyone else.

Veronica, my beloved <3 <3 <3

#heatherblogging #cw: suicide mention #tw: suicide mention

[goobergoeslive]

HeatherBlogging Part 10

I do think it’s extremely shitty of Veronica to take advantage of the overall sentiments of aggressive homophobia at the time, even if it’s to pull what she thinks is just a prank.

But I do enjoy that Veronica is a flawed protagonist; she does deeply irresponsible things, sells out her old friends and puts down other people for the sake of popularity, and sometimes believes she is smarter or more in control of a situation than she really is (leading to some of the aformentioned irresponsibility).

It’s true that the joke about what they bring in the bag takes some pot-shots against gay dudes, but I personally don’t think it’s anything too mean or too tasteless. However, despite being pretty gay myself, I am not a gay man, and I’m in no way an authority on how anyone should or shouldn’t feel about these jokes.

Another cute outfit, and this one is a bit more iconic! It’s the outfit that Veronica is commonly shown wearing in the movie posters.

By this point, it should be no surprise that the bullets are indeed real, and that JD shoots dead. And Veronica did genuinely think that they were fake: at first she starts to laugh when the other guy escapes, and is pretty content with letting him go, since it was enough to just see the look on his face when she pulled out the gun, but then JD berates her for missing the shot and goes after him. And slowly it begins to dawn on her that her classmate is indeed dead. From her facial expressions to her body language, she seems deeply perturbed.

For the first time, I wondered why JD didn’t just shoot Ram in the back during the chase scene, but then I realized that he probably wanted him to be shot near Kurt, so they wouldn’t have to drag the body to the spot to construct the suicide scenario afterwards. A more sinister interpretation is that JD willingly led him back there, so Veronica would get another chance at taking a killing shot (which she does), though I’m pretty sure JD would have ended up shooting him anyway, even if Veronica hesitated.

Another thing I’ve wondered during my earlier viewings is why didn’t Veronica just try calling the cops near the end of the movie, beside “for plot reasons”. It made sense earlier on, since she would have brought attention to herself, and her crimes could have more easily come to light, but at the movie’s climax, when there is a lot more at stake, it wouldn’t seem unbelievable for her to take that risk. And I think the answer is right here in this scene: the cops are complete and utterly incompetent. The first and only time we see the police in the movie, they are two guys smoking pot in their patrol car, who only go to investigate after hearing the second shot. They sloppily arrive at the scene, one of them dropping his baton on the way, and while one of them goes to investigate some noise, the other is employing some stellar police work, by picking up one of the murder’s guns with a stick, only to immediately hold it with his bare hands. And though these are played as jokes, I think they are also indications that, even if Veronica had called the police, she probably wouldn’t have gotten much help.

Having the officers being more disturbed that Kurt and Ram might have been gay rather than finding that they commited double suicide is another one of those moments that almost isn’t funny due to how accurate it is.

I think one thing that I tend to forget during my later viewing is how deeply JD made my skin crawl during my first watch. I kind of “got used” to his bullshit, but the truth is that he isn’t any less of a human rodent now than he was before. I don’t have to tell you how fucked it is that he used Veronica’s self-inflected burn with the car’s ligther to light his own cigarrete, but him insisting that Veronica really wanted to shoot Ram and Kurt, and it’s just that she doesn’t want to admit how “gross and icky” those feelings are, is I think actual gaslighting. If you pay attention to the previous scene, and even the scene before Chandeler gets poisoned, I think it’s abundantly clear that Veronica didn’t genuinely intend to kill anyone..

Veronica doesn’t immediately dump him, though. She’s clearly downtrodden and unhappy, but I think she is still hanging on to a sliver that it may be worth it to keep being with JD.

This actually brings up an unfortunate but accurate point: if Kurt and Ram were indeed gay, and they had come out while still alive, would their families still say they loved them and were proud of them?

And Veronica thinks that JD’s remark is pretty funny, but then sees a young crying girl staring at her, who I think is supposed to be part of one of the deceased’s family.

It’s kind of a cheap moment, but it does show that, putting aside the people who were, you know, actually killed, this situation hurts other people as well. It can be easy to forget because of the whole media circus, but all these deaths do lead to more misery, and Veronica begins to realize that just letting things go as they are won’t lead to any good, not only for others, but also for herself.

#heatherblogging

[goobergoeslive]

HeatherBlogging Part 9

"I blame not Heather, but rather a society that tells its youth that the answers can be found in the MTV video games.”

That doesn’t check out: I’m pretty sure there is a collective agreement that the Beavis and Butthead game was shit.

I mean, it was obvious that they would clown on Christianity at some point, which is appropriate, valid and frankly isn’t done enough times. Like, this priest’s speech can’t even be considered a true parody: they really do be like that.

The student’s prayers for the deceased are also an excellent moment. We also get to see that McNamara is not happy about what happened, but treats it as less of a tragedy and more of an awkward occurrence, Duke is absolutely elated that Chandeler is gone, and Veronica does feel genuinely responsible for her death.

Meanwhile, after the funeral, JD is already eyeing up his next targets. I like how they show how a lot of people witness the bullying, but no one even tries to intervene, except for the bullied kid’s friend, and even then he doesn’t do more than feebly ask them to stop. It indirectly makes the point that bullying is terrible, but it’s doubly fucked how no one is willing to help.

I just like this shot of JD looking like a total edgelord.

“Another fucking Heather… I’m sorry. I’m just feeling a little superior tonight. Seven schools in seven States, and the only thing different is my locker combination.”

It’s not just that JD has hang-ups about not remaining in the same school for too long: it’s also that he sees the exact same problems crop up again and again. It starts to become more understandable why he has the views he does, but even so, the movie pulls no punches in saying that his methods are, not only morally wrong, but also inefficient in the long run.

In the morning of the next day, we get yet another peek at how Chandeler’s demise is being used by other people for their own ends. Veronica is even pulled aside and offered words of comfort, as it is believed that she and Chandeler were good friends, only for then to be asked if she had poems or artwork that Chandeler had made so the journalism club can build a “memorial” for her in the form of a yearbook spread.

Afterwards, some girls pick on Veronica, because of a rumor spread by the jock guys that, in the night prior, they and Veronica had, in the movie’s words, “a little sword fight in her mouth”.

She and JD thus devise a plan to get some revenge by giving the two guys a scare. At least that’s what Veronica thinks.

Red flag # 37: when the guy gives you a gun and “”jokingly”” says that the two of you are going to shoot someone. I mean, it’s not really a flag at this point, as much as a blinding blaring siren.

JD manages to convince her by saying that “hey, don’t worry, these bullets aren’t the real deal, and they won’t cause an actual murder”, and Veronica buys it, I guess because she still wants to believe that JD is just a harmless edgester, and not a dangerous psycopath.

#heatherblogging

[goobergoeslive]

HeatherBlogging Part 8

“That’s good. Have you done this before?”

I like the small pause and brief play of the harmonica after this line. I don’t think JD had done something like this before, given how he seemed to be at such a loss after Chandeler’s murder, but rather “what he had done before” is refering to writing a suicide note, or at the very least thinking about what to write on one.

There are only two scenes of the teachers and principal’s meetings, but they are among my favorites. The deadpan and business-like way they are addressing what is believed to be one of the student’s suicide is obviously terrible, but a good bit of dark humor, and also maybe not that far off from how such situations are handled “behind the scenes” in real life.

At first, Miss Flemming seems to be the only sane and compassionate person in the entire room, calling out the others on how cold they are being, but then she comes out with this line:

Which just shows that she is terrible in a different way. The others don’t even bother pretending they care, but Miss Fleming’s way of “caring” is to make a spectacle out of a tragedy, in an attempt to look enlightened and morally superior, which, in my opinion at least, is even more abhorrent.

Still, I like how they sneakily try to make us empathize with her more by making her the underdog in this situation, only for later to become even clearer that she is no better than the rest.

No one really liked Chandeler, huh? McNamara appears to be mostly unfazed by the entire situation, and Duke is having her first taste (harhar) of freedom.

“I’m just so… thrilled! To finally have an example of the profound sensitivity of which a human animal is capable.”

And then she proceeds to show the suicide note to the entire class. Classy.

Aaand yet another shot that I think is interesting, even though I don’t see what meaning it could have. From what I know of common butterfly symbolisms, I don’t really see how they can apply to Veronica in this case. Maybe it’s just meant to look nice!

It is really fucked how everyone is suddenly seeing depth in Chandeler after her supposed suicide, and trying to spin it to something positive for themselves. I think it’s yet another moment that mirrors real life reactions to these kinds of tragedies and how deeply insidious they are. I think one of the reasons I like this movie so much is that, despite it being a dark comedy, it never really jokes about suicide itself. The one time someone does attempt suicide and is mocked for it, such mockery is treated as cruel. Instead, what the audience is invited to hold in contempt is how the media and society in general treats people who have commited or attempted suicide. It’s about exposing the glorification of such tragedies and how they are a massive disservice and disrespect for those who have died, and deeply damaging to those who are susceptible to go through them.

Veronica and JD MST3King local new channels is pretty funny, I’ll give them that.

Also, those golden cobra statuettes by the fireplace sure are something.

I like how it only takes 2 minutes for Veronica to realize that JD’s dad is really fucked, and just she makes up a pretty weak excuse to not want to stay for dinner (unless she really likes that spaghetti with oreganos). I think this scene captures the discomfort of “finding out that a lover/friend’s family members are massive creeps” pretty well.

JD and his dad’s back-and-forth where they essentially say each other’s lines is also simultaneously funny and unsettling.

Ok, so this is the second scene with Veronica and her parents. The setting and shot composition is identical to the first one, and the tone of the conversation is pretty much the same, even though they open up by talking about Chandeler’s suicide. It just reinforces that, despite the media buzz surrounding the suicide, no one seems to genuinely care, and life goes on just as usual.

#heatherblogging #cw: suicide mention #tw: suicide mention

[goobergoeslive]

HeatherBlogging Part 7

“Heather Chandeler is one bitch who deserves to die.”

“Killing her won’t solve anything. I say we just grow up, be adults and die.”

In hindsight, the movie was always super obvious about its themes.

Of course Chandeler’s house would be overwhelmingly red, it should be of no surprise if you have been paying attention so far!

Ahaha JD, you’re such a kidder. You’re obviously not being serious about literally poisoning Chandeler, right? Ahaha…

Maybe dating JD wasn’t such a good decision, huh.

And of course, when Veronica accidentally picks up the cup with the drained fluid, JD notices and maybe almost considers to warn her, but instead asks for him to be the one to carry it, presumably so it won’t be as likely that Veronica will notice the mix up.

I genuinely didn’t know the direction the movie was taking the first time I was watching it, even though all the signs were there. I think there was part of me that kept insisting “yeah right, like they’ll actually do it”. I also enjoy how everyone else seems to immediately see past JD in regards to him being a dangerous creep. Too bad that not even this was of any help to Chandeler.

Shit, we saw her directly take off the red scrunchy. The crown has been removed. Nothing good will come from this!

And just like the glass table shatters, so does any illusion that this was going to be your run-off-the-mill American highschool comedy. I think this is definitely one of those movies that it’s better enjoyed going in blind. Considering how many times I’ve watched it though, I would be a liar and a hypocrite if I said it had no rewatch value, so even if you do get spoiled, it can still be enjoyable.

I think this might be one of the movie’s most iconic shots. There are actually a bunch of shots that display really nice one point perspectives, but given the “holy shit” circumstances, this one definitely stands out.

“I’m going to have to send my SAT score to San Quentin instead of Stanford.”

For a while I actually thought that this line was some sort of joke of how Veronica would have to enter some sort of inferior college instead of one of the big ones because she did a murder, but then I looked up and it turns out that San Quentin is a State Prison, which yeah, it makes more sense.

This scene does show that JD did pretty much act on impulse, since he’s also in genuine shock and doesn’t seem to know what do with himself for a while, but he does manage to whip up a quick solution after seeing a copy of Sylvia Plath’s “Bell Jar” and an article about the American youth conveniently placed on top of each other.

Another “shot that probably doesn’t mean anything, but I can’t help but fixate on”, of a mask overlapping Veronica’s reflection of her head.

This part is also where Veronica’s ability to copy someone’s handwriting becomes relevant again, with her being the one to forge Chandeler’s fake suicide note. That’s Checkov’s Gun at work, baby.

I'll also probably stop the liveblog for today. It can take a surpising amount of time to watch a movie while doing this type of analysis! I'll likely resume, and hopefuly have it finished, by tomorrow.

#heatherblogging

[goobergoeslive]

HeatherBlogging Part 6

The college party section is one that I think frankly drags on for a while too long. It does culminate in an important scene of Veronica telling Chandeler off, thus risking the annihilation of her social life. Thankfully, it is interspersed with some moments of Veronica’s inner monologues, and the story really starts to pick up afterwards.

And again, we have that Veronica = Blue and Heather Chandeler = Red thing going, but the real issue here is that I can no longer look at blue vs. red lighting without being immediately reminded of a particularly stellar commentary made on that recent Morbius movie, which, if you have an hour or so to spare, I would absolutely recommend listening to, it’s definitely one of the most film commentaries out there.

There is something pretty Twin Peaks-y about this shot, and I sure do hope I don’t end up doing a commentary on this series, because I’m still on this movie’s 20 minute mark, and have more than an hour of it to talk about. God help me.

One thing that I find particularly interesting about this part in the movie is how we see that Chandeler might not be all that happy with her status as “the most popular girl in school”.

She obviously detested going down on that guy for the sake of preserving her image and reputation as “pretty girl who likes to party”. In fact, I don’t think we ever see Chandeler be happy in the movie, except on occasions where she’s reveling in other people’s misery.

I did find it a bit strange for a while as to why they would choose to show this side of her character, considering what happens to her around 10 minutes from now and her subsequent status throughout the entire movie, but there are some scenes later on that I think shed a bit more light on this decision.

It is pretty excellent to watch Veronica tell off shitty guys so early in the movie. I think we get a lot of indications that she is not as much of a pushover as one might immediately assume, and it’s something that builds upon her character development as the story goes on.

Just a side note to focus on some weird decorations: that lightbulb filled with paper clips. I actually want to make something like that, now that I’ve seen it.

I also like how the fire in the trash can, caused by Veronica thoughtlessly throwing away a burning alcoholic drink, grows as the situation grows more chaotic, culminating in Veronica and Chandeler having their big argument outside, where there is, again, a lot of Red vs. Blue lighting going on, though I think it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that there is some meaning to it here, it being a representation of the conflict between the two girls.

Red flag #3, I think is the current number: crawling in through someone’s open window uninvited, in the middle of the night. Still, it could mean nothing at this point. Veronica does seem weirded out, but seems pretty ok with boning him regardless. Also, if I remember correctly, in the Musical, it is Veronica the one who actually crawls into JD’s house in the middle of the night, while somewhat still under the influence, which was… certainly a decision.

#heatherblogging

[goobergoeslive]

HeatherBlogging Part 5

Alright, so the second croquet match:

During Heather C’s turn, she bumps her (red) ball against Heather D’s (green) ball. Duke then asks her if she’s going to take the two shots or send her out. In croquet, when a player strikes another ball, this usually means that they are then allowed two extra strikes. However, Chandeler instead opts to use her turn to send Duke's ball out to a disadvantageous position - essentially, she chooses to be a jerk.

But despite the difficult position, when her turn comes, Duke manages to impressively ricochet the ball into the widget, which leads Chandeler to once again strike against the green ball when her turn comes. This will become relevant later on, when a similar croquet scenario plays out with different characters.

I love Veronica’s scenes with her parents. The second scene with them is basically a repeat of the first with slight variations on the dialogue, and given the circumstances in that part of the story, it just makes the jokes even more bizarre and hilarious, and then we get an almost repeat for a third time, but by then things have become too dire and more serious.

I don’t know if the use of blue has any particular significance in this shot, other than to signify that this is Veronica’s house (we can guess as much since her parents are here, and all the Heathers leave to go home). Still I can’t help but notice it.

I deeply relate to Veronica’s dad in this particular bit.

Yet another cute outfit alert!

I realize that this is an important line in establishing JD’s later motivations, but I keep getting distracted by that orange juice machine in the background. I am positive I have seen one just like it, or at least one with that same stock photo of a glass of orange juice, irl.

We actually learn a few important things about JD in this couple of scenes: he moves around from state to state, never staying in a same school for very long; his dad works in a construction company, which gives him some “perks”, one of them being the bike; JD obviously has some hang-ups about moving around so frequently; and he tells Veronica to her face that he doesn’t like her friends - which considering the type of people the Heathers are and that Veronica isn’t that happy being with them, wouldn’t seem like a very shitty thing to say in context, but it’s kind of worrying to hear a guy say that so bluntly to a girl he supposedly likes, there’s always something that makes me flinch a little inwardly when he says it.

And Veronica does seem a little put off about it, but it could also be that she is feeling guilty from associating with the Heathers, considering how she tries to excuse her relationship with them as being like “people she works with” and that their job just happens to be “popular and shit”.

#heatherblogging

[goobergoeslive]

HeatherBlogging Part 4

Veronica finally approaches JD, and for the first time we hear his harmonica leitmotif.

I have to say, I really like this movie’s soundtrack. I haven’t been able to find a version with the exact songs you hear in the movie, but the official available OST is still really good. It has a bunch of weird and ethereal electronic sounds, which are at times a little reminiscent of slasher and other horror movies from the late 70’s to early 80’s (I wonder why…)

 think JD has a good introduction. It starts with him sort of staring at Veronica, obviously interested in her, but disapproving of what she did to Martha, and when Veronica actually talks to him, he seems cordial and charming, if kind of a smartass, but also has that typical “bad boy” vibe to him. I think it’s easy to understand why Veronica would be interested in him at this point.

He’s also an edgy try-hard, but considering he’s a teenager, it’s not an immediate red flag.

Anyway, Veronica is totally into him, which upsets the local jock duo, who try to intimidate JD. and then

This is the movie again telling you “this story is going to get really weird, and you are absolutely not prepared for how it will go”. This is also the first big “holy shit” moment, and the point where I started to realize that maybe this wasn’t going to be the Mean Girls-esque comedy I thought it would be.

I actually found this to be particularly unbelievable in my first viewing, since I am well aware how school shootings are a big issue in America, but we must remember that the movie came out in 1989: before the 90’s, at least from what was reported, there really weren’t many school shootings in the US, so despite this movie being at its core a dark comedy, it probably wouldn’t be so unbelievable at that time for a teenager to just get a slap in the wrist for bringing a gun to school and shooting some blanks.

Heather C is right though, and she should say it.

#heatherblogging #cw: guns

[goobergoeslive]

HeatherBlogging Part 3

If you haven’t watched Heathers before, I will warn you that things might potentially get very upsetting from this point on. So content warnings for mentions of eating disorders, a gun being used in a school setting, suicide attempts and bombing. I'd advise any reader to sit this movie out if such topics are too much for them.

I like how they disperse around scenes that show what the other students think of Veronica and the Heathers, Chandeler more specifically. There are the dumb jocks who are horny for her (Kurt and Ram), the people who fear her and try to act as if they aren’t in the same space as her (Betty), and the people who don’t like her, but act like they do and try to suck up to her and even try to impress her in some way (like having the girl in the stripped shirt saying that her cardigan, which Heather had just complimented, had cost her a fortune).

Ok, this scene shows what I meant by that “beautiful” comment: as a response to the questionnaire, the girl in the cardigan says that she would donate every cent of the money she received to the homeless, after which Veronica says “You’re beautiful.”

Veronica steps aside, and Chandeler confronts her about being “a bitch”, which pretty much indicates that Veronica was being openly facetious when she said it, and that was likely the case before too.

This scene also shows that Veronica does voice her distaste towards Chandeler. regarding her behavior, and likely has done it before, but Chandeler doesn’t really care - she’s at the top of the pyramid, and she’ll treat people the way she wants, with no repercussions. Still, Veronica gets her to show the questionnaire to the “lower strata” of the school, which shows that, despite everything, Veronica does have some influence in what decisions the Heathers make.

The sequence where we get the different students’ answers to the questionnaire is incredible. My favorite response is the one from that long-haired guy sitting on the car’s hood.

(and also maybe foreshadowing???)

Again, Veronica is pretty clearly against making life harder for Martha, but does so anyway. I think this is a good example of Veronica’s greatest flaw: she has a clear grip on what’s right and what’s wrong, but goes along with the others to do terrible things anyway. Though she voices her frustrations and tries to nudge the others to be less terrible, she is still too passive overall. Que Sera Sera, and falling out of line is too great a risk. Seemingly, at least.

“You wanted to be a member of the most powerful clique in school. If I wasn’t already the head of it, I’d want the same thing. Come on Veronica; you used to have a sense of humor.”

I wonder how long Veronica has been a part of the Heathers clique. I don’t think it’s ever specified in the movie. Chandeler says that she is a Junior, but throughout the movie it’s shown that the girls are familiar with many of each other's habits, so they had to know each other for at least some months, I would think.

Also, the transition from Duke about to induce vomit to the lunch food being swept into the trash by some unnamed school staff is gross and inappropriate, but also kind of clever. Which I think summarizes this movie pretty well on some level!

#heatherblogging #cw: eating disorders

[goobergoeslive]

HeatherBlogging Part 2

Veronica’s more formal introduction, and cute outfit alert!

Transcribing from her first monologue:

“Heather told me she teaches people real life. She said, “Real life sucks losers dry. If you want to fuck with the eagles, you have to learn to fly”. I said, “So, you teach people how to spread their wings and fly?” She said, “Yes.” I said “Yooou’re beautiful”.

Out of context, that last line might sound kind of gay (and it kind of is, don’t get me wrong), but the way Veronica says it, as well as the way she says it again to some one else, implies that she’s being sarcastic. In this context, “you’re beautiful” means something closer to, putting it nicely, “you’re a piece of work”, which solidifies that, from the start, Veronica never really liked or respected Heathe Chandeler, a feeling which is mutual, but even so she chose to join her clique and be bossed around.

This is something that actually gets covered a bit more clearly in the musical adaptation: in the movie, you don’t really get a concrete explanation of why Veronica joined the Heathers, considering she never liked them that much - there is a motivation, but it’s kind of subtle and relies more on you thinking that “well, even if they are terrible, the Heathers are popular, so sticking to them would probably be a good idea. Even if Veronica hates them, she is kind of a pushover, so it’s not unbelievable to infer why she would do it, even if she knew they would treat her like crap”. To me, it’s a motivation that makes sense and doesn’t need to be spelled outright, but I also know that not everyone is insane and will probably watch this movie 10 more times like I will.

And here we establish Veronica’s aptitude to accurately copy someone else’s handwriting, in this case for the purpose of tormenting a girl who is implied to be bullied relentlessly. 

In this part of the story, we see one of the biggest changes that was made between the movie and the musical adaptation: in the former, Veronica has a childhood friend called Betty, whom Veronica is still reasonably friendly to, but whom the Heathers disapprove of, because she’s a “dweeb”, while Martha is a girl that is basically at the bottom of the school hierarchy - she eats at the lunch table by herself, seems to have no friends, and everyone treats her like crap, including Veronica, who although says “she doesn’t have anything against her”, goes through with following Heather’s orders to write her an humiliating note.

Meanwhile, in the musical, Betty and Martha are merged into one character - Veronica’s childhood friend who is at the bottom of the social hierarchy, and while this was an understandable choice in terms of abridging some elements to make the story flow better, as well as give Veronica more personal stakes later on, I prefer how these characters and their relationships are set up in the movie. I will expand more on this point further on, but for now I’ll just leave it as a note.

And there he is, the terrible boy! The shitty sad teen! I do love JD, I think he’s a great character that really moves the story along, but he is absolutely terrible, which is also great!

Another cute outfit shot. Also, despite the three Heathers all sporting their trademark colors in this scene, Veronica looks distinctly non-blue, which may have been unintentional and have no meaning, but what if

It’s pretty easy to feel bad for Duke in the first quarter of the movie. She more or less parrot’s the other girls’ lines, and is insulted by Chandeler for making the most basic questions. It’s kind of interesting how it switches over to Heather McNamara being the most sympathetic of the 3 Heathers, while Duke becomes the most abhorrent near the end.

Ok, now here is something I think is interesting: after Veronica bumps into Betty due to being distracted by JD making googly eyes at her, the two begin talking, and we have a more distinct focus on the only mark of blue on Veronica’s outfit (her brooch). You can see the brooch in other shots beforehand, but, to me, this is the first time when it really pops into the screen. And maybe I’m just overreaching here (highly likely (99.99%)), but I think that the blue (her color) becomes more visible, because Veronica lets her guard down and becomes a bit more of herself when she’s talking to Betty. I mean, the excuse of not going to her birthday party is obviously bullshit, but you do get the feeling that Veronica likes her and still wants to be her friend.

Also, tiny Betty and Veronica in Halloween costumes are just really cute.

(wait, it’s just dawned on me what their names are, at what year did Archie come out?)

#heatherblogging