Fun

Released in theaters several months after the superb Heavenly Creatures, this tale of two teenage girls who kill an old woman for kicks suffered from the comparison — and still does two years later. Fun almost literally picks up where Creatures left off, with most of the action taking place in the detention center where the girls, whose passionate relationship has lesbian undertones, are evaluated by a shrink and interviewed by a tabloid reporter. The young actresses give arresting, no-holds-barred performances, with Renee Humphrey remarkably controlled as the nihilistic Hillary and Alicia Witt unforgettably manic as Bonnie, who treats jail as if it were the set of a wacky Cyndi Lauper video. Everything around them, however, is banal and schematic. B-