Hair High (2004)

75% of critics liked it
(20 reviews)
72% of users liked it
(97 ratings)

As the prom draws near and the popular head cheerleader of Echo Lake High dumps her star quarterback boyfriend in favor of attending the dance with the biggest loser in school, the raging footballer plots murderous revenge in cult animation icon Bill Plympton's darkly satirical take on the teen… More As the prom draws near and the popular head cheerleader of Echo Lake High dumps her star quarterback boyfriend in favor of attending the dance with the biggest loser in school, the raging footballer plots murderous revenge in cult animation icon Bill Plympton's darkly satirical take on the teen tragedy radio hits and high-school melodramas of the 1950s and '60s. High-school sweethearts Cherri (Sarah Silverman) and Rod (Dermot Mulroney) are a match made in popularity heaven. When nerdy new student Spud (Eric Gilliland) makes the fateful mistake of offending both Cherri and Rod on his first day at Echo Lake High, his punishment is to serve as Cherri's "slave" until both she and her brutish boyfriend decree that he has made up for his unintentional transgression. Though the mere sight of Spud at first makes Cherri's skin crawl, the unlikely pair soon grow exceptionally close until, one day, love blossoms between them. Upon learning that his onetime sweetheart will now be attending the prom on the arm of the socially awkward Spud, Rod angrily forces their car off of the road on and into the icy waters of Echo Lake as the couple makes their way to the big dance. Though cunningly successful in thwarting attempts made by local authorities to locate the missing teens, Rod soon discovers that sometimes the dead have a curious way of exposing the crimes of their killers. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: G, 1 hr. 18 min.
Directed By: Bill Plympton
Written By: Bill Plympton
Genres: Horror, Animation, Romance, Comedy

In Theaters: Apr 17, 2004 Wide

Critic Reviews

Michael Ordoña, Los Angeles Times
Hair High is not for everyone, but it's not like anything else out right now.
Michael Booth, Denver Post
Rarely is filmmaking of any kind this exuberant, this inventive or this entertaining.
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe
Much of the visual comedy comes from the incongruous proportions of the bodies: skinny legs and puffed-out chests.
Dennis Harvey, Variety
An amusing send-up of late '50s/early '60s high-school melodramas and teen-tragedy pop hits.
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger
None of this is for kids, and the way Plympton works clearly isn't for studios. It's just for grown-up fans of eye-catching animation.
Neil Genzlinger, New York Times
In the gleefully outrageous animated feature Hair High, director Bill Plympton walks the border between ridiculously gross and outright offensive.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
Plympton's fourth feature film is also his least inspired, but it's still very much worth a look.
Gary Goldstein, Reel.com
It's a wickedly fine ensemble and Plympton gives everyone free rein, which is no surprise from the creator of this irreverent, freewheeling delight.
Ernest Hardy, L.A. Weekly
It's gross-out fare of the highest caliber.
Jeff Vice, Deseret News, Salt Lake City
It's probably time for Plympton -- who's been making films for nearly 30 years -- to try to do something a little loftier.
Sean Means, Salt Lake Tribune
With sharp animation, funny gags and catchy songs, Hair High plays like the weirdest, and improbably sweetest, send-up of Grease you'll ever see.
Phil Villarreal, Arizona Daily Star
The film spoils itself %u2014 and not in the way Plympton has spoiled his fans so much before.
Maitland McDonagh, TV Guide's Movie Guide
The monstrous images that are so effective in Plympton's short Plymptoons can be unpleasant at feature length and eventually overwhelm what is, at heart, a Grease-like teen-movie parody.
Brian D. Schiller, Slant Magazine
The taste meter on Hair High gets turned off somewhere around the halfway mark.
Tom Keogh, Seattle Times
Demonstrates the problem with taking a singular animated style -- best seen in witty, small doses -- and extending it to a 78-minute feature that taxes one's patience.
Sean Axmaker, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
When Plympton's freak flag flies, Hair High delivers the same whacked-out weirdness of his shorts. The rest of the film simply stretches out the simple premise...
Eric Campos, Film Threat
Just remember all of the anxieties you had in high school and apply them to Plympton's twisted gray matter.