Cinema: Teen Life Ain't Worth Livin'

Two movies turn young angst into black comedy and pop music

Where are the teenpix of yesterday? Gone with the demographic wind. As the U.S. movie audience ages toward thirtysomething, Hollywood has discarded the teen genre like so many Molly Ringwald paper dolls. What's left? Only caustic satire, as in the new black comedy Heathers, or retro fantasy, as in Sing.

At suburban Ohio's Westerburg High, a quartet of teen princesses runs the school. They are called the Heathers, because three of the four are named Heather. The fourth, Veronica (Winona Ryder, pallid of face and sharp as Cheddar), is at first pleased to be accepted by this "bunch of Swatch dogs...

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