Jawbreaker - 20th Anniversary Edition

Mean Girls...just got meaner!

Available now on Blu-ray, "Jawbreaker" - 20th Anniversary commemorative edition dusts off the near-new millennium dark comedy and makes it relevant once again. The hauntingly horrific exploration of excesses and high school popularity is a dark ride down the rabbit hole as a group of "it" girls justify the accidental murder of one among their cast, giving to a shift that moves some of them up the rung closer to prom queen status even as a new swan among them dares to spread her wings.

"Jawbreaker," released in 1999 and starring Rose McGowan and Rebecca Gayheart, is very much in the style of similar dark comedies that came before it. 1988's "Heathers," starring Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, and Shannen Doherty, first examined to perfection the "mean girl as a psychopath" spin, and made it somewhat attractive to be that rebellious and willing to turn that anti in-crowd idea into something that would inspire generations; after all, the idea is to not be a follower, but rather your authentic self – at whatever the cost.

Rose McGowan leads the cast, which doesn't really extended outside of the foursome at the center of the story. Including the Rebecca Gayheart as the "good girl," Julie Benz as the "blind follower," and Judy Greer as the "ingenue" who wants nothing more than to shed her ordinary, awkward self and get remade into one of the cool girls. When a birthday kidnapping plot goes horribly wrong and the girls accidentally kill one of their own (oops), they scramble to cover it up, especially before anyone has time to vote for Prom Queen!

When Rose McGowan made her big screen debut in the 1996 genre-bending horror hit, (as a buxom blonde no less), the actress had solidified for herself an onscreen presence that set her apart from her contemporaries immediately. She had a skill for navigating the line of both the savory and sweet, clearly provocative and amply able "best gal pal." Her saucy appeal generated femme fatale, but McGowan would prove far more dimensional than that, and always full of wit - a candor and irony that is on full display in "Jawbreaker" in role as "Queen Bee" Courtney Shayne.

The actress steals much of "Jawbreaker," and dominates most profoundly in a scene opposite her hunky, but dumb, oversexed boy toy, Dane (Ethan Erickson), who literally will suck on a "big stick" (just like Courtney asks) in order to get his way with her, but who's actually zooming who here? Gayheart, as the excommunicated "good girl" Julie, eventually finds a way to turn the tables on Courtney, beating her at her own game. "Jawbreaker" doesn't have the quippy one-liners that made "Heathers" a more pop-cultural phenomenon, but "Learn it. Live it. Love it." sticks out.

The Blu-ray features brand new 20th Anniversary commentary from the filmmakers and the movie's cast, as well as the original theatrical trailer. It's pretty impressive to revisit "Jawbreakers" 20 years later and feel that it holds up. Let's remind ourselves that social networking was still mostly in its infancy, camera cellphones really weren't a thing, and yet soulless sycophants were only relegated to high school hallways. The internet freeway of Facebook and Twitter were but a gleam in their creators' eyes – and yet, being popular, it's all still so fetch!

"Jawbreaker," 20th Anniversary Edition
Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital
$22.99
www.sonypictures.com/movies/jawbreaker