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Showing posts with the label Winona Ryder

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #66: Edward Scissorhands

One could make the argument that Edward Scissorhands (1990) is the ultimate Tim Burton movie. It is set in a pastel-coloured American suburb, it has a memorable score by composer Danny Elfman and it marked the first collaboration between Tim Burton and Johnny Depp. Furthermore it has a small key role for horror icon Vincent Price, whose movies Burton watched as a child. It is unconventional for sure, but like a lot of Burton’s work it has become iconic to the point of influencing pop culture. I was very young when this movie came out in theatres and like most of Tim Burton’s movies it is in a bit of a grey area when it comes to age restriction. Batman Returns for instance is a comic book movie, but a comic book movie in which one villain is electrocuted to death and another spews black blood out of his mouth before dying. Edward Scissorhand is nowhere near as graphic, but it is probably still a good idea that I waited until I was in my teen years before watching it on TV. I...

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #412: Heathers

Heathers is a movie that deals with school shootings, bullying, homophobia and teen suicides. Sadly it was not made this year, but in 1988 and remains relevant today. Fortunately it is also a dark comedy with a hints of hope buried amongst the many dead bodies. Also noteworthy, it was a critical hit for stars Christian Slater and Winona Ryder before their careers went off the rails but then got back on track thanks to lead roles in hit TV shows. Clearly some things change and some things stay the same. Seeing it the first time I was struck by the tone balanced by director Michael Lehmann and writer Daniel Waters, and thought there is no way this could be made today. A lot of bad things have happened in schools in North America between 1988 and today, chief among them mass shootings. Bullying is ever present thanks to social media, and suicide is such a hot-button issue in schools that some organizations were afraid the Netflix show 13 Reasons Why might encourage teens to take th...