S.L.C. PUNK! A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 1999 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): **
It's hard being a dedicated anarchist and punk rocker in very religious Salt Lake City. Even if one abides by one's own rigid set of rules about creating a society without any, the chaos of a life dedicated to creating chaos can be challenging.
Set in 1985, S.L.C. PUNK! is a parody of life on the punk side. Loosely based on the teenage experiences of its writer and director, James Merendino, the film is a talkfest. Most vocal, with his long and increasingly tiresome and repetitious monologues to the audience, is the blue-haired Stevo. Matthew Lillard, an annoying actor with a propensity to overact, plays Stevo. Lillard, last seen in the disastrous WING COMMANDER, is admittedly a little better this time.
The other actors in S.L.C. PUNK! are likeable, even if their lines are only sporadically funny. With a black Mohawk hairstyle, Michael A. Goorjian plays Heroin Bob, who possesses a strong needle phobia and a vociferous anti-drug attitude. A nerdy Jason Segel plays Mike, the punkest one of them all, even without strange hair. Til Schweiger is Mark, the capitalistic punk, whose home looks like an electronics store, thanks to the lucrative settlement from his parent's plane crash. MYSTIC PIZZA's Annabeth Gish plays a head shop owner whose hair color changes more often the weather.
In a typical teenage plot, the school contains several stereotyped groups, including, but not limited to, the mods, the new wavers, the Nazi skinheads, the poseurs and the punk rockers. These various groups fight comical turf and ideological battles. The mods, for example, are preppie types that wear ties, drive Vespa motorbikes and buy their drugs from the punks.
The film's big joke is that, underneath, rebel Stevo isn't a rebel after all. He goes off to college and earns top grades, while his father (Christopher McDonald) expects him to go Harvard Law just as he did. Stevo, who majors, tellingly, in prelaw, puts down his old man as a big sell out. His dad, who claims to have been a radical in his youth, says that he didn't sell out, he bought in.
With an old hippie style van that has "antidisestablishmentarianism" on its side and profanities inscribed on its tires, the film just isn't as funny as it sounds. At least the picture never makes the classic mistake of taking itself seriously. It's an audacious parody from start to finish even if it suffers from a paucity of good laughs.
S.L.C. PUNK! runs 1:37. It is rated R for drug use, profanity, violence and sex and would be fine for older teenagers.
The film is showing as part of this year's San Francisco International Film Festival (www.sfiff.org), which runs from April 22 to May 9. In the San Jose area it will open on Friday, April 30 at one of the Camera Cinemas.
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: www.InternetReviews.com
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