Jawbreaker Has the Best Beauty Looks of All Time, and I Refuse to Believe Otherwise
Major spoilers ahead for those who haven't seen the movie, but in that case, where have you been? Get thee to a streaming site and watch Jawbreaker immediately--it's so good. I'm not even completely doing it justice in this write-up.
Next to The Craft, Spice World, and Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, Jawbreaker is one of my favorite films of all time. With Rose McGowan, Julie Benz, Rebecca Gayheart, and Judy Greer in the leading roles as Courtney, Marcie, Julie, and Fern/Vylette, the movie was a perfect representation of every late '90s trend I tried desperately to wear, accompanied by dark humor and super flowery dialogue. If you aren't familiar, the plot is as follows: with the intent of surprising their friend Liz (played by Charlotte Ayanna) and treating her to breakfast on her 17th birthday, Courtney, Marcie, and Julie kidnap her as a prank and stuff her in the trunk of Courtney's car, not knowing Courtney had stuffed a Jawbreaker into her mouth. They arrive at the diner, pop the trunk, and find that Liz has choked on the candy and died. They go to school, attempting to be normal, and later on as they try to place Liz back into her bed at home, Fern finds them staging the murder scene. Hilarity, I suppose, ensues.
Everything about the film is so smart, and I love all of the attention to detail director Darren Stein paid to everything. For example, you'll see a lot of round shapes repeated within scenes and in the wardrobe as a nod to the Jawbreaker that led to her demise. He also intentionally cast actors well out of the high school age range as high schoolers, paying slight homage to Carrie and Grease, which happened for each of the aformentioned films. There's an entire monologue where the girls talk about wearing a nail polish called "Decay," which was a nod to the '90s-era Urban Decay lineup, and that iconic hallway strut? It has since launched a thousand imitations in its wake.
It's easy for me to wax poetic over this film, especially since I'll occasionally break it out to watch whenever the mood strikes me, and the vivid beauty looks have impacted me all the same--I adore Rose McGowan and dressed up as Courtney for Halloween in the 6th grade, and tried to find a replica of the pink lip gloss Marcie stays wearing, but more on that in a second. Like the fan girl I am, I've outlined a few memorable looks from the film below. As McGowan's character Courtney says in the opening scene, "Take a long, hard look in the mirror, girls. It's beauty time."
