SLC Punk!
USA/Australia 1998
Reviewed by Charlotte O'Sullivan
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
The early 80s. Stevo is a young punk living in Salt Lake City, Utah. Stevo's divorced middle-class parents want him to go to Harvard to study law. He'd rather fight and party but it dawns on him that his "hardcore" friends are going soft. And he himself seems to be changing. Further confused when his father informs him he's got into Harvard (his father filled out the forms), Stevo's world finally comes apart when he sees his girlfriend Sandy getting off with another man. The girlfriend of Stevo's best friend Bob promises to set Stevo up with a pal of hers, Brandy. Stevo and Bob go to see Bob's father. It's his father's birthday, but the old man is so paranoid he doesn't recognise Bob and gets out his gun.
That evening they all go to Brandy's party. Stevo is immediately smitten by Brandy but Bob can't settle down, telling everyone he's got a headache. A girl gives him a mound of tablets; he becomes violent, so Stevo takes him home. In the morning Bob is dead. Stevo is ready to marry Brandy and go to Harvard.
Review
A sweet film about punks seems almost a contradiction in terms. You expect messy, amateurish and obnoxious - and SLC Punk! certainly manages to be these as well - but sweet? Surely they can't be for real, these American anarchists. Director/writer James Merendino's point, of course, is that no one's for real. Like the boys in Peter Yates' delightful Breaking Away (1979), Stevo's gang are just looking for a niche, and just as the underprivileged hero in that film adopted an Italian identity, overprivileged Stevo has embraced funny-coloured hair. It comes as no surprise when right near the end we learn Stevo and Bob are also Dungeon and Dragon-playing nerds.
One of the film's many problems, however, is that Matthew Lillard is not a naturally sympathetic actor. Like Dennis Hopper and Jim Carrey, he's one of those faster-and-faker-than-life performers who always brings something new to the term OTT. Lillard is especially limited because he has only two expressions: the I-know-you-like-me smile, and the shit-you-don't-like-me pout. His constant presence (he supplies not only the voiceover narration but talks endlessly to camera) soon becomes irritating and only a few scenes manage to trick him into doing something new, such as a scene where his father gradually seduces him into going to Harvard. Most of the time, though, you don't know where you are with Lillard/Stevo. So when his friend Bob dies (fatally traumatised, it would seem, by his lack of parental love and Spandau Ballet's 'She Loved Like Diamonds'), Lillard dives into a puddle of emotion, wailing, "Now I don't have any friends!" You wonder if Merendino is taking a sly poke at Stevo's narcissism. Or maybe he's just hoping we'll break down in floods of tears ourselves.
The voiceover compounds the confusion. It's unclear, for instance, whether we're meant to accept the fast-forward in the narrator's perspective. Three-quarters of the way through the film, Stevo makes it clear he's no longer the boy he was. It's just the sort of self-deprecating voice of authority familiar from The Wonder Years. Again, if this is an ironic comment on how we seek to shape our lives then it's an interesting move. However, one suspects Merendino wants us to take it at face value. As a viewer, you can put up with a lack of structure - this is, after all, an anarchist's tale - but the last-minute attempts at order are harder to forgive.
SLC Punk! sticks far too closely to the rites-of-passage formula. And most of the bizarre encounters (whether with misfit friends or prejudiced locals) take us places we've been before. But ironically the place feels new. Salt Lake City's mud flats, the post-apocalyptic forests and miles upon miles of white sky manage to appear both unfriendly and banal. We're used to seeing America's wide-open spaces through appreciative eyes (as the "promised land" the Mormons supposedly mistook Utah for). It's nice to view it for once as a bored teenager might, as necessarily inadequate, as a waste of space. And then there's that sweetness, that acknowledgement that boys do cry which actually leaves more room for the female characters to shine. (Annabeth Gish does a nice turn as stern hippie goddess Trish, while Summer Phoenix is a revelation as the unaffected Brandy.) This, plus the spot-on music (Blondie, that cherry-coloured bridge between punk and mainstream, plays at Brandy's party) make one look forward to whatever shambolic project Merendino gets around to next.
Credits
- Director
- James Merendino
- Producers
- Sam Maydew
- Peter Ward
- Screenplay
- James Merendino
- Director of Photography
- Greg Littlewood
- Editor
- Esther P. Russell
- Production Designer
- Charlotte Malmlof
- ©Straight Edge Productions LLC
- Production Companies
- Beyond Films presents
- a Blue Tulip production
- Executive Producers
- Jan De Bont
- Michael Peyser
- Andrea Kreuzhage
- Co-producer
- Tam Halling
- Associate Producers
- Katrina Fernandez
- Glenn Salloum
- Production Co-ordinator
- June Hatch
- Unit Production Manager
- Tam Halling
- Location Manager
- Arlene Sibley
- Assistant Directors
- Matias Alvarez
- Win Whittaker
- Script Supervisor
- Suzanne Bingham
- Casting
- Risa Bramon-Garcia
- Randi Hiller
- Salt Lake City:
- Roz Soulam
- Visual Effects
- Supervisor:
- Wendy Rogers
- Consultant:
- Chris Watts
- Set Decorator
- Adriana Verway
- Costumes
- Fiora
- Costume Supervisor
- Giovanna Zompa
- Key Make-up Artist
- Tania Goddard
- Key Hairstylist
- Shelley Brien
- Titles/Opticals
- Pacific Title/Mirage
- Music Supervisor
- Melanie Miller
- Soundtrack
- "Too Hot" by Prince Buster aka Prince Buster, performed by The Specials; "Champaign Breakfast" by/performed by John Sbarra; "1969", "Little Doll", "We Will Fall" by David M. Alexander, Ronald Asheton, Scott Asheton, Iggy Pop, performed by The Stooges; "No More Bullshit" by David C. Lowery, Victor H. Krummenacher, Greg Lisher, Christopher Molla, Jonathan E. Segel, performed by Camper Van Beethoven; "Train Wreck", "One of These Days", "Fear & Loathing" by Preston O'Meara, Paige O'Meara, Evan O'Meara, Dan Epstein, performed by 8 Bucks Experiment; "Cretin Hop", "She's the One" by Jeffrey Hyman, John Cummings, Douglas Colvin, Thomas Erdelyi, performed by Ramones; "Gasoline Rain" by Derwood Andrews, performed by Moondog; "Gangsters" by Jeffrey Dammers, Terry Hall, Stephen Graham Panter, Lynval Golding, John Bradbury, Neville Staples, Rod Byers, performed by The Specials; "Bluegrass Blues" by/performed by Danny L. Roberts; "Urban Struggle" by Joe Escalante, performed by The Vandals; "Through the Town" by/performed by Roger Roger; "Moonlight Sonata" by Ludwig Van Beethoven, performed by Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra & Chorus; "Wreck We 'Em", "Pooh Bare" by James Merendino, Elizabeth Westwood, Elmo Weber, performed by Holistic Olive; "Look Back & Laugh" by Ian MacKaye, James Brian Baker, Stephen Wills Hansgen, Jeffrey K. Nelson, Lyle Preslar, performed by Minor Threat; "Requiem" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, performed by Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra & Chorus; "Dreaming" by Debbie Harry, Chris Stein, performed by Blondie; "Amoeba" by Rick Agnew, Casey A. Royer, performed by Adolescents; "Kiss Me Deadly" by Billy Idol, Tony James, performed by Generation X; "Sex & Violence" by Walter Buchan, Glen Campbell, Gary W. Mccormack, John Duncan, performed by Exploited; "Mirror in the Bathroom" by Andrew Cox, Everett Morton, Roger Charlery, David F. Wakeling, David Steele, performed by Fifi; "Little Ocean" by/performed by Whiskey Biscuit; "I Love Livin' in the City" by Lee James Jude, performed by Fear; "Pay Back" by I. Zimmer, performed by The Bates; "Gypsy Tango" by/performed by Robert J. Walsh, Bugowski; "Beat My Guest" by/performed by Adam Ant; "Lazy River" by Sidney Arodin, Hoagy Carmichael, performed by Les Paul Trio; "Hot for Teacher" by Edward Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, David Lee Roth, performed by Van Halen; "Istanbul Coffee House" by/performed by Daghan Yakup Baydur, Richard Keith Madoc Thomas; "Free to Live" by/performed by Bill LeBlanc, Robert J. Walsh; "Rock & Roll" by Lou Reed, performed by The Velvet Underground; "Mother of Pearl" by Bryan Ferry, performed by Roxy Music; "She Loved Like Diamonds" by Gary Kemp, performed by Spandau Ballet; "The Trees" by Neil Peart, Gary Lee Weinrib, Alex Lifeson, performed by Rush; "Kill the Poor" by Jello Biafra, East Bay Ray, performed by Dead Kennedys; "High Adventure"; "Mexican Dance"
- Sound Design
- Elmo Weber
- Sound Mixer
- Doug Cameron
- Re-recording Engineers
- Dennis Patterson
- Warren Kleiman
- Supervising Sound Editors
- Elmo Weber
- Walter Spencer
- Dialogue Editors
- Walter Spencer
- Michael Ferdie
- Bill Knight
- Sound Effects Editors
- Derek Vanderhorst
- Donna Lynn Biggs Weber
- ADR
- Recordist:
- Warren Kleiman
- Foley
- Walkers:
- Paige Pollack
- Adam De Coster
- Recordist:
- Warren Kleiman
- Stunt Co-ordinator
- Fenton Quinn
- Cast
- Matthew Lillard
- Stevo
- Michael Goorjian
- Bob
- Annabeth Gish
- Trish
- Jennifer Lien
- Sandy
- Chris McDonald
- father
- Devon Sawa
- Sean
- Jason Segel
- Mike
- James Duval
- John the Mod
- Summer Phoenix
- Brandy
- Adam Pascal
- Eddie
- Til Schweiger
- Mark
- Chiara Barzini
- Jennifer
- Kevin Breznahan
- Chris
- Christina Karras
- Jamie
- Russ Peacock
- Jones
- Christopher Ogden
- young Stevo
- Francis Capra
- young Bob
- McNally Sagel
- Mom
- Scott Brady
- bouncer
- Vaughn McBride
- liquor store man
- Janice Knickrehm
- liquor store woman
- Marcia Dangerfield
- liquor store lady
- Tom Jacobson
- liquor store fellow
- Stephanie Shumway
- Jules
- Eric Robertson
- doctor
- Micaela Nelligan
- nurse
- Mary Bishop
- Sean's mother
- Dominic Gortat
- poser
- Evan O'Meara
- GBH singer
- Elizabeth Westwood
- hot babe
- Glade Quinn
- Brad Jessey
- cowboys
- Don Walsh
- Bob's dad
- Adam Lawson
- Russ
- Brandon Klock
- Tom
- Kassandra Metos
- little girl
- Brad Slocum
- teller
- Joyce Cohen
- clothing store woman
- Tracey Pfau
- fast food clerk
- The 8 Bucks Experiment
- Dan Epstein
- Evan O'Meara
- Paige O'Meara
- Preston O'Meara
- Extreme Corporal Punishment
- Certificate
- 15
- Distributor
- Columbia Tristar Films (UK)
- 8,792 feet
- 97 minutes 42 seconds
- Dolby digital
- In Colour
- Anamorphic [Panavision]