Heathers

“Dear Diary: My teen-angst bullshit now has a body count.” A caustic rejoinder to John Hughes’s ’80s Brat Pack pictures, Lehmann’s savage suburban satire brought out the sociopathic side of Christian Slater’s too-cool outlaw persona, casting him as J.D., the motorcycle-riding new arrival at Ohio’s Westerburg High School who recruits Winona Ryder’s at-first pliable Veronica Chandler into his increasingly unhinged plans to humble their class’s ruling clique of three terrible popular girls named Heather. Clearly having a ball with Daniel Waters’s imminently quotable, coal-black screenplay, Ryder gives more than a few line-readings for the ages here; just try to keep “What’s your damage?” out of your vocabulary after viewing.