SLC Punk! (1998)

SLC Punk! (R)

An anarchic duo recently graduated from college try to find meaning and inebriation in their 1980s era Regeanomics American Utah Punk scene in Writer & Director James Meredino's semi-autobiographical film, SLC Punk!

Of all the post-Trainspotting inspired flicks that were made, SLC Punk! is the truest to harnessing it's internal spirit.  It's an independently made slice of life film about the underbelly of a culture that not many people would openly discuss, entertainingly made and acted, well scripted with snappy dialog and situations, with a punch in the gut about conformism and society itself.  Using it's young stars (not only does Matthew Lillard star, but Jason Segal is a very young, very memorable baby-faced Mike) in just the right way, SLC goes through the entire scene bit by bit very organically and breaks a few fourth walls on it's way through Mods, Skin Heads, UK Punks, Junkies, Euro-weirdos, Straights, Shit-kickers and even their own parents.  The cliques and societal constructs fall like domino's before the films wit and humor, especially when Lillard is joined by Micheal Goorjian as Heroin Bob, so called because he is afraid of needles and who's portrayal often steals the show from Stevo's own frantic portrayal.  Their relationship is the central core to the movie, from childhood to adulthood, and thrusts home the final nail in Punk's coffin.

Shot in a rugged mixed media style, told through the drug addled recollections of Lillard's Stevo shouted to us the viewers like a host over the stereo at a raucous party, the look of the film matches it's name, it embodies the Punk Rock "I Don't Give A Shit" mythos.  The humor is loud and relate-able, the music is stylish yet loudly nostalgic, the sex drugs and rock n' roll pathos is loud and tragic.  All this, added to the sociological interest of the time period, the perceived Mormon oppression of a minority group, the ex-Hippy yuppies and homeless mental cases, SLC Punk! humorously and sarcastically encapsulates everything that made being a Punk so attractive in the 1980s, especially to young attractive intelligent youths who were very far from the weirdo unwashed trash their appearance made themselves out to be.  It is a short, timeless look at another side of American life that will never be again, but at least we have SLC to remind us.

9 "It's New" out of 10 (GREAT)