05.03.25, 20:30, Heathers (1988)

Grab your bag and hurry to the school bus, Kinoautomat takes you on a trip into the pitch-black corners of the high school movie.

Unsaturated from the youthful rebellion of our past Kinoautomat quartet, we linger in the classrooms with Heathers. This dark teen comedy did away with the feel-good optimism of films like Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) in the 1980s in exchange for a chilling depiction of the high school years. Student Veronica (Winona Ryder) belongs to the hyper-popular Heathers, a clique of vicious girls who thrive on humiliating their social underlings. However, when the mysterious J.D. (Christian Slater) catches her attention, Veronica begins to turn on her friends. The two plot to eliminate the popular elite and murderously disrupt their school's status quo.

Our guest speaker on duty focuses their croquet balls on the role of queer resistance in the high school genre. Although at first glance Heathers runs in line with traditional narratives of romantic liberation, the film can be reread as an allegory for breaking with heteronormative expectations.

This film will be introduced by filmmaker lau persijn.