SLC PUNK
Alrighty folks, Harry here with my review of SLC PUNK. Which had the rather unfortunate fate to be screened immediately after ELECTION, a fantastic film that you would all do good to go out and see.
When doing SISKEL AND EBERT there was an unexpected problem that I faced. I really wanted to write the main reviews for this movie and PUSHING TIN, as I feel badly about giving bad reviews to movies without an extensive amount of space to discuss that in a straight forward manner.
For me, soundbyting a negative review is far harder to do effectively than for a positive. (Unless the film is just awful in everyway.)
So, being faced with having roughly around a max of 45 seconds to discuss my problems with SLC PUNK, I was forced to sum up my number one problem. Matt Lillard.
I don’t HATE Matt Lillard, but I haven’t been a big fan either. His name does not motivate one of those... “Oooooh Coooooool, Matt Lillard’s in it!” statements. I enjoyed him quite a bit in DEAD MAN’S CURVE and the first time I saw SCREAM I enjoyed him quite a bit. However, I quickly found that he just wasn’t performing characters that I enjoyed on screen.
I began to form the opinion that Matt Lillard is best served as a small side order or a garnish for a better movie. This does not mean that one day I won’t see him in a movie and say, “Lillard was born to play.....” whoever it may be.
Matt Lillard IS this movie. Point Blank. His character is in nearly every frame of the film. He narrates the entire film, sometimes directly into camera. Having just seen ELECTION, which made perfect use of the same narrative devices, here... with Lillard’s annoying character raps.... It was like a drill being inserted in an ear and going all the way through Fulci style after a stunning symphony (aka Election).
Now don’t get me wrong, I LOVED the music in the film. I’m a RAMONES fan since way the hell back at ROCK N ROLL HIGH SCHOOL. They used to play Austin ALL THE TIME when I was a kid, and my Dad took me to many of their concerts at a cool club, which I believe was called RAULS. The BIG BOYS kicked major ass, and one of their poster artists Maxwell Malice was a friend of mine... Even did one poster with me in a Big Boy outfit being encased in glass by a giant Big Boy. In Austin, the Punk scene was huge and still exists. I’ve been to concerts and parties... but you know what?
Punk, is not the reason I hated this film. Ya know... Lillard went a very long hard way towards droning into my skull that thought... But the main reasons were that... for me.... it didn’t have a very fresh look at Punk culture.
To look at the Salt Lake City version of the Punk underground was significantly less exciting than the Punk underground that existed in Austin at that time. My experiences here in Austin with that time period colored my opinion of the rather lackluster SLC scene.
And the film was scoring a mediocre negative review with me till they did the unforgivable (in my mind) and that was when the movie gave me a glimpse at the film it could have been.
After all that happens in SLC PUNK, they have a quick flashback to the ‘pivotal’ moment in these Punks’ lives when... they changed. You see, they go back to when they were only... Say... 12 or so years old. One friend comes in, bemoans their lot in life, their social standing (having their asses kicked constantly, never going to parties, etc), then attempting to change the music in this basement.
The other friend (a younger version of the Lillard character) is setting up a game of DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS, a hallmark game of my generation. Something that struck an instant harmonious chord within me. There was a brief year of my life where all my friends played it, till we became addicted to ATARI, the VCR and something called MTV. Anyways, when RUSH is removed from the stereo, and a different... strange tape is inserted, the young version of Lillard asks what this is.... And the other kid says.... “Something New”
Brilliant scene. Instantly I was pissed. I felt cheated. I mean here... right here was the basis, the starting line for a FANTASTIC FILM, at the tail end of a boring one!
If that scene started the film. If we watched the progression of how that one tape changed them from D&D dweebs to the world of PUNKS. How their parents reacted along the way. How their High School fellow students would react at those years, then worked our way up to the time period of the story we got.
I wanted the full arc. I wanted the epic PUNK story. I wanted a film that slammed me as hard as you got slammed in the pit during a Wendy O’Williams concert. And instead, the film felt TRENDY. It was like... Someone telling a story I knew, but without the coolest of details. Without the punch. They created a film that strived to make these punks look and feel REGULAR. It made their lives routine ala punk. How dare they!
They took all the violence and drugs, but really kinda left out any of the other hallmarks of the scene. This film reminded me of one of those “could’ve been flicks”. You know. A film that just felt less than it could have been, and as a result of getting it wrong, you just go fucking apeshit and you hate the thing?
You STARSHIP TROOPERS haters know what I mean. I liked that film, but to you.... You wanted the book, you couldn’t get past the bullshit excuses for not having the Power Suits, and making the giant story comprimises that the film made. And you hated Casper Van Diem.
Well, after everything, it all came back to sit upon the shoulders of Matt Lillard. This is a film based on a character’s personality, and I didn’t shine to Lillard’s. If you like him... you’ll like the movie... If you don’t, well... at the least, it didn’t motivate me to be kind towards him.
When all is said and done, I would rather recommend to each and everybody that wants to see a really great PUNK film... Go get SID & NANCY! Go watch the last 20 minutes of AMERICAN POP! And beg and find your way into a copy of TRUE STORIES OF THE DOUGHNUT MEN!
TRUE STORIES OF THE DOUGHNUT MEN?
Yeah.... It’s a film that’s never been distributed. It was produced by Rana Joy Glickman and is a fantastic look at the sort of Anarchy advocated by the punk scene. It’s a work of punk art. And is a fantasticly visceral film... Ideal for campus theaters. But ya know.... You’ll probably never ever get a chance to see it.
Why?
Cause life sucks in that way.
Because nobody saw it. Because they didn’t understand the fundemental beauty inherant to the statements of ANARCHY. The philosophy of mob rule. The crashing of glass, the lampooning of the establishment, and the depravity of man. There is a beauty to it. It’s about shedding the bonds of society and listening to a music that ‘they’ don’t understand, but is poetry to you.
The use of the music in SLC PUNK just didn’t thrill me. The performances had a few spots here and there, but mainly... I just didn’t care for the characters which seemed to just be playing to stereotypes.
It’s a film with a pretty damn strong ending.... but the wait... for me is excruciating.
These punks are in college, they’re going to classes... allegedly, but I never got a feel for what prejudices they had there. Did they exist? Sigh.... Alas this isn’t the TRAINSPOTTING for Punks.
I didn’t disappear into the culture. I wasn’t transported to the scene. AND I wanted to be.
Now saying all of this, if you decide to go see this movie, go and see it late at night when the most punks will possibly be in the theater with you. And you might come away loving it for the experience. But for being alone in an empty theater after ELECTION... it was tedium.
