Capital Celluloid 2012 - Day 182: Sat June 30

Heathers (Lehmann, 1988) & Society (Yuzna, 1989):
Midnight Movies Nightcap Double Bill at Roxy Bar & Screen, London Bridge, 11.30pm


Here's the Midnight Movies introduction to the evening: Tonight we're gonna party like it's 1989! Midnight Movies returns to London nightlife with a double-bill of cult 80s social satires HEATHERS and SOCIETY as they launch their monthly NIGHTCAP events at new host venue, Roxy Bar and Screen. Nightcap will celebrate all forms of after dark cinema in an interactive, social atmosphere, including rare musical gems, cocktail specials and prizes.
 
The Midnight Movies team recently selected their perfect double-bill in Little White Lies' Midnight Movies issue, and with Nightcap they bring the dream to life by screening two of the most satirical teen films the 80s ever created: Michael Lehmann's HEATHERS and Brian Yuzna's SOCIETY. Will sociopathic couple Veronica (Winona Ryder) and J.D. (Christian Slater) topple the Heathers, a triumvirate of power-hungry, croquet-playing bitches? Or will Bill Whitney (Baywatch's Billy Warlock) discover the real reasons why he will never quite fit into Society? It all gets rather messy...

Time Out review of Heathers:
'A wicked black comedy about teenage suicide and pernicious peer-group pressure, this refreshing parody of high-school movies is venomously penned by Daniel Waters and sharply directed by Lehmann. The Heathers are three vacuous Westerburg High school beauties who specialise in 'being popular' and making life hell for socially inadequate dweebettes and pillowcases. Having sold out her former friends in these categories, Veronica (Winona Ryder) becomes an honorary member of the select clique - but turns monocled mutineer. Aided by handsome rebellious newcomer JD (Christian Slater), she devises a drastic plan to undermine the teen-queen tyranny, but underestimates JD's ruthlessness: the scheme backfirs dangerously. The compromised ending (forced on the film-makers by New World) is a serious let-down, but there is some exceptional ensemble acting, several stylish set pieces, and more imaginative slang than you could shake a cheerleader's ass at. More crucially, the film uses an intimate knowledge of teen-movie clichés to subvert their debased values from the inside.'
Nigel Floyd
Here is the trailer

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Time Out review of Society:
'A bizarre fable that starts like a TV soap but soon darkens into a disturbing thriller about an idyllic Beverly Hills community where something is subtly skewed. Handsome teenager Bill (Billy Warlock) feels uncomfortable with his affluent peers. But the usual teen insecurities take on a more sinister aspect when his sister's ex-boyfriend Blanchard plays him a clandestine recording of her 'coming out' party which suggests perverse, incestuous sexual initiation; but when Bill's shrink later plays the tape back to him, he hears only innocuous conversation. How does this connect with rich kid Ted's exclusive teen clique, or Blanchard's death in a road accident? Is there a dark conspiracy, or is Bill losing his marbles? First-time director Yuzna is happier with the sly humour and clever plot shifts than with the appropriately iconic but sometimes dramatically unconvincing cast. He nevertheless generates a compelling sense of paranoid unease, and shifts into F/X overdrive for an unforgettable horror finale. Suffice it to say that the 'surrealistic make-up designs' by Screaming Mad George (who did the cockroach sequence in Nightmare on Elm Street 4) will stretch even the most inelastic mind.'
Nigel Floyd
Here is the trailer.

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