JAWBREAKER
by Lev David

First-time writer-director Darren Stein has been quite candid in press releases about the fact that he never "fitted in" in his high school years. It would seem that this movie is his way of exercising revenge on the much-despised in-crowd.

As is so often the case, though, Stein is the kind of outsider who secretly would like nothing more than to be an insider. And so, Jawbreaker sells out to superficiality and becomes a celebration of the very things it claims to denounce. Typically, the characters of Jawbreaker occupy that strange world where the ugly people look just like the beautiful people, only with braces.

In the movie, three über-hip, ultra-bitchy members of a high school's ultimate clique kidnap the school sweetheart, Liz Purr, on the morning of her seventeenth birthday, all in the name of friendly fun and humiliation.

The group's leader, Courtney (Rose McGowan) gags Liz with a jawbreaker before the three dump their victim in the boot of their flashy convertible. When they finally pop the boot, however, Liz is dead, having choked on the huge gob-stopper.

Courtney is determined to make the best of the situation -- with Liz gone, she'll be a shoo-in for prom queen. But Julie (Rebecca Gayheart) decides to split from the group, risking making herself a school outcast. She could go to the police, but Courtney could very well drag them both down.

I'm sure this movie would like to be called a black comedy. If only that essential part of the formula were not missing - comedy.

One of the more shameful aspects of Stein's movie is that it expects us to find funny the sight of the bruised and battered corpse of the half-naked, teenage Liz. Sure, other movies (Pulp Fiction, for instance) have found humour in screen deaths. The difference with Jawbreaker, however, is that it asks us to laugh not at the situation, but at the sight alone.

Much like its namesake, Jawbreaker is brightly coloured, mostly artificial, and lacking in any nutritional value.