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Welcome back Winona – the exotic outsider all 1990s girls wanted to be Welcome back Winona – the beautiful outsider all 1990s girls wanted to be
(35 minutes later)
“Beware of mice.” That quote, from Joanna Briscoe’s novel Sleep With Me, always comes to mind when someone mentions Winona Ryder, who is returning to film in Beetlejuice 2. Briscoe was writing about people who seem weak but always survive, who appear harmless but subtly assert themselves.“Beware of mice.” That quote, from Joanna Briscoe’s novel Sleep With Me, always comes to mind when someone mentions Winona Ryder, who is returning to film in Beetlejuice 2. Briscoe was writing about people who seem weak but always survive, who appear harmless but subtly assert themselves.
Ryder wasn’t the mouse that roared, she was the mouse that wrote a diary then read it out in a trembling voiceover. The announcement that she’s reprising a role she first played in the late 1980s – when she was on the brink of becoming a hero to every misunderstood teenager who attended school in ripped fishnets – will have transported many women straight back to an earlier era. An age of zines, riot grrrl, dun-coloured plaid and i-D magazine shoots by Corinne Day.Ryder wasn’t the mouse that roared, she was the mouse that wrote a diary then read it out in a trembling voiceover. The announcement that she’s reprising a role she first played in the late 1980s – when she was on the brink of becoming a hero to every misunderstood teenager who attended school in ripped fishnets – will have transported many women straight back to an earlier era. An age of zines, riot grrrl, dun-coloured plaid and i-D magazine shoots by Corinne Day.
Related: Winona Ryder: five best momentsRelated: Winona Ryder: five best moments
Ryder’s characters reassured us that the meek will inherit the Earth if they wait long enough and are pure of heart. They promised a life beyond our teenage ennui. In Edward Scissorhands, Ryder was a gamine cheerleader awoken from suburban conformity by a blade-fingered paramour. In Heathers, she was a gamine high-schooler awoken from suburban conformity by a hot-but-homicidal paramour. In Girl, Interrupted she was a gamine mad girl awoken from medicated conformity by anarchic Angelina Jolie (I wish that would happen to me). In Beetlejuice she was a gamine goth girl awoken from suburban conformity by spirits from the underworld. But her delicacy was laced with the devil, which came through when she played ambitious Jo March in Little Women, and later, in the adaptation of The Crucible, that nasty myth about conniving females who bring down good men with their delusional accusations.Ryder’s characters reassured us that the meek will inherit the Earth if they wait long enough and are pure of heart. They promised a life beyond our teenage ennui. In Edward Scissorhands, Ryder was a gamine cheerleader awoken from suburban conformity by a blade-fingered paramour. In Heathers, she was a gamine high-schooler awoken from suburban conformity by a hot-but-homicidal paramour. In Girl, Interrupted she was a gamine mad girl awoken from medicated conformity by anarchic Angelina Jolie (I wish that would happen to me). In Beetlejuice she was a gamine goth girl awoken from suburban conformity by spirits from the underworld. But her delicacy was laced with the devil, which came through when she played ambitious Jo March in Little Women, and later, in the adaptation of The Crucible, that nasty myth about conniving females who bring down good men with their delusional accusations.
Winona felt our suburban frustrations and mirrored them like a jaw-droppingly beautiful avatar who endorsed all of our feelings. She was a waif in a world of Top Gun, hair metal and the supermodels who bestrode the Earth when she first became famous.Winona felt our suburban frustrations and mirrored them like a jaw-droppingly beautiful avatar who endorsed all of our feelings. She was a waif in a world of Top Gun, hair metal and the supermodels who bestrode the Earth when she first became famous.
She didn’t listen to Guns N’ Roses, she listened to Counting Crows. Well, in fact, she dated the guy from Counting Crows. In films such as Reality Bites and How to Make an American Quilt she conveyed the isolation of the bookish young woman who is unsure of her place in the world, who has promise but is held back by shyness, who is sensitive but not simple, quietly spoken but curious.She didn’t listen to Guns N’ Roses, she listened to Counting Crows. Well, in fact, she dated the guy from Counting Crows. In films such as Reality Bites and How to Make an American Quilt she conveyed the isolation of the bookish young woman who is unsure of her place in the world, who has promise but is held back by shyness, who is sensitive but not simple, quietly spoken but curious.
Ryder and her contemporaries represented a Generation X pushback against the yuppie swagger of the 1980s brat pack of James Spader, Demi Moore, Val Kilmer, Emilio Estevez and Tom Cruise. What with Keanu Reeves being part-Hawaiian and Ryder’s one-time boyfriend Johnny Depp being part-Cherokee – or was he just slightly tanned? – they were exotic, without actually being of colour. The men and women alike were stunning but delicate; they were tofu salad not beefcake, thin not buff, challenging the macho certainty of the 1980s with a certain vegan sensitivity and ambiguity that recalled James Dean. Like Dean, they had edge, the brittle swagger that comes with being an outsider: Winona Ryder and River Phoenix both spent their childhoods in communes, and Ryder’s family friends included Timothy Leary, Aldous Huxley and Allen Ginsberg.Ryder and her contemporaries represented a Generation X pushback against the yuppie swagger of the 1980s brat pack of James Spader, Demi Moore, Val Kilmer, Emilio Estevez and Tom Cruise. What with Keanu Reeves being part-Hawaiian and Ryder’s one-time boyfriend Johnny Depp being part-Cherokee – or was he just slightly tanned? – they were exotic, without actually being of colour. The men and women alike were stunning but delicate; they were tofu salad not beefcake, thin not buff, challenging the macho certainty of the 1980s with a certain vegan sensitivity and ambiguity that recalled James Dean. Like Dean, they had edge, the brittle swagger that comes with being an outsider: Winona Ryder and River Phoenix both spent their childhoods in communes, and Ryder’s family friends included Timothy Leary, Aldous Huxley and Allen Ginsberg.
Related: Beetlejuice 2 is really happening, confirms Winona RyderRelated: Beetlejuice 2 is really happening, confirms Winona Ryder
Ryder perfectly embodied the period’s aesthetic of saggy boiled-wool jumpers, spiderweb-silk babydoll frocks that looked singed at the hems, DMs with soles like mattresses, starched Peter Pan collars, and silk slips with spaghetti straps. Pitched between the library, the charity shop and the gutter, this part Victorian doll, part lumberjack-ugly look appealed because it didn’t try too hard and you didn’t need to be beautiful or hard-bodied for it to work. We wore it while watching My So-Called Life and rubbing our teary faces against Nirvana, Sebadoh, Hole and Pavement CDs. We drank a radical new drink called a “cappuccino”, read Karen Krizanovich’s brilliant agony-aunt column in Sky magazine, watched the Chart Show, listened to John Peel and Mark Radcliffe and recorded them on cassettes, got Melody Maker and NME every Wednesday and Select every month, wore scrunchies, read Nancy Friday, fancied Dylan from Beverly Hills 90210 and David Bowie in Labyrinth, and used Body Shop dewberry shampoo. There were no mobile phones. And no internet.Ryder perfectly embodied the period’s aesthetic of saggy boiled-wool jumpers, spiderweb-silk babydoll frocks that looked singed at the hems, DMs with soles like mattresses, starched Peter Pan collars, and silk slips with spaghetti straps. Pitched between the library, the charity shop and the gutter, this part Victorian doll, part lumberjack-ugly look appealed because it didn’t try too hard and you didn’t need to be beautiful or hard-bodied for it to work. We wore it while watching My So-Called Life and rubbing our teary faces against Nirvana, Sebadoh, Hole and Pavement CDs. We drank a radical new drink called a “cappuccino”, read Karen Krizanovich’s brilliant agony-aunt column in Sky magazine, watched the Chart Show, listened to John Peel and Mark Radcliffe and recorded them on cassettes, got Melody Maker and NME every Wednesday and Select every month, wore scrunchies, read Nancy Friday, fancied Dylan from Beverly Hills 90210 and David Bowie in Labyrinth, and used Body Shop dewberry shampoo. There were no mobile phones. And no internet.
The tabloids dragged Ryder down when she was convicted of shoplifting. Hollywood wouldn’t forgive her, although it forgave Roman Polanski. When she returned, it was in Black Swan, in a lurid and sexist role as an embittered former ballerina envious of Natalie Portman.The tabloids dragged Ryder down when she was convicted of shoplifting. Hollywood wouldn’t forgive her, although it forgave Roman Polanski. When she returned, it was in Black Swan, in a lurid and sexist role as an embittered former ballerina envious of Natalie Portman.
So it’s good to see Ryder now, reunited with the director Tim Burton, who gets her. When Beetlejuice 2 sees daylight, every thirtysomething woman’s inner mouse will smell Anaïs Anaïs on the breeze and give a squeak of joy that, sometimes, good girls come out on top.So it’s good to see Ryder now, reunited with the director Tim Burton, who gets her. When Beetlejuice 2 sees daylight, every thirtysomething woman’s inner mouse will smell Anaïs Anaïs on the breeze and give a squeak of joy that, sometimes, good girls come out on top.