Maybe it's because humans keep their offspring around for so long compared to other animals. Maybe it's due to the influence of the media and entertainment. Maybe none of that's true and it's just a fact of growing up. For whatever reason, kids get rebellious in their teenage years with some not having yet outgrown that after entering their twenties.
Whether it's radical clothes, a defiant attitude or even piercing odd parts of their bodies, kids rebel to show that they've had enough with their "square" parental units. Our parents did it when they were teens, we did it at the same age, and today's kids will do it. As such, each passing generation forgets that they participated in such craziness and thus acts completely shocked by how their kids -- or all kids overall -- are acting and dressing.
If there's one particular "philosophy" or lifestyle that most upsets parents, it's the punk movement. You know, the look that's personified by multicolored hair -- often spiked or even cut into a Mohawk -- as well as chains, some body piercing and odd clothing choices. Mostly inspired by the punk rock movement that erupted out of London in the late '70's and swept across the "pond" to infiltrate the American youth, the look is quite startling -- to those who've gone through the "squaring" process -- but is quite understandable and acceptable to much of today's youth.
If punk rock and the stereotypical image of socially conservative Salt Lake City don't come to mind as elements that would appear together, let alone in a film, than you're probably not alone. After all, few would confuse punk rock poster boys Sid Vicious or Johnny Rotten with Utah favorite son Donny Osmond. That said, every type of music and its flow down attributes have some sort of following in nearly every city and "SLC Punk!" takes a look at that musical form as it appeared to teens in the land of Brigham Young during the mid '80's.
As our always philosophizing protagonist immediately tells us, being an anarchist in Salt Lake City in 1985 was no easy task. That's certainly not all he tells us in this highly frenetic but extremely disjointed film. About as episodic and structure impaired as they come -- like any good anarchist would appreciate -- this aggressive film -- that never makes much sense -- hasn't a prayer of playing outside its limited target audience.
As flippant and rebellious as the characters it presents, the picture is filled to the brim with annoying quick-cut camera and editing tricks that immediately wear out their welcome the second time they're used. It also contains a great deal of cumbersome voice over narration that's a sure sign of taking the easy way out of telling a story, but writer/director James Merendino ("Witchcraft 4") goes even further by continually having the narrator break the "fourth wall" and directly address the audience.
While that device can be effective and fun when handled correctly (such as in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and in the old TV show "Moonlighting" where characters occasionally did that while also stating that they solved certain problems during the commercial break), here it only becomes more annoying every time it's deployed.
The bigger problem, however, is that the story simply flips and flops its way around like a fish on dry land and neither it nor the characters experience much development. Sure, the main character eventually sees that his way of thinking about the world and himself is wrong and finally undergoes a change, but in doing so proves he's just as bad as the poseurs he earlier ridiculed.
Stevo never is a true punker -- which is typified by him studying pre-law in college, something we never see but clearly hear about -- and by the time he finally comes to that realization, what little admiration you may have had for the guy sticking to his guns -- no matter how badly aimed they may have been -- is instantly shattered.
All of his voice over dialogue seems too stilted to be real, and sounds more like what would come from a screenwriter's imagination and keyboard than a real punk rocker. As such, we never completely buy into his rebellious posturing since he never seems to fully believe or live it himself.
Playing the blue-haired anarchist, actor Matthew Lillard ("She's All That," "Scream") continues his string of playing unlikable sorts and simply takes this character to the next level of that. While he does have a certain larger than life and charismatic on-screen persona, Lillard doesn't give Stevo enough of a push in any direction to make him particularly compelling, threatening, disgusting or even oddly likeable (as compared with, say, Malcolm McDowell in " A Clockwork Orange").
Besides Lillard, Til Schweiger ("The Replacement Killers") gets the next best flamboyant role as the sometimes paranoid orphan with a penchant for outrageous behavior. Meanwhile, Michael Goorjian ("Hard Rain") is fitfully funny as Heroin Bob, a guy scared to death of needles, although most of the best humor related to him comes early on. The rest of the performances, including a humorous bit part by Christopher McDonald, as well as from Devon Sawa, Annabeth Gish and Summer Phoenix are decent but hardly memorable.
To the film's benefit, it does contain a few funny moments, such as a flashback of Stevo -- sporting a foot-high, blue-dyed Mohawk -- arguing with his formerly hip, but now square parents as they give him a "we love and support you, but..." talk, and another where Stevo and his oddly dressed pals make a liquor run to the land of cowboys -- Wyoming -- where they pretend to be from England to be accepted.
The best, but rather brief scene, however, comes from a moment where Stevo, Bob and Mark anxiously wait for the stolen car they've just ditched to sink out of sight, only to realize it won't due to the extreme salinity and subsequent buoyant qualities of the Great Salt Lake.
Unfortunately, such moments are few and far between in this film that despite appearing to zip along, seemingly drags on for much longer than its near one hundred minute runtime. Had the film jettisoned the "in your face" narration (or simply made it funnier) and the annoying camera moves, and patched up its overall episodic nature, then the film might have been more enjoyable.
While such an anti-structure nature might seem appropriate for the film's theme, and its target audience might not mind such antics, the rest of the moviegoing population will, thus ensuring that this punk of a movie will quickly be driven out of town. Although it has its moments, for the most part the film is more annoying than entertaining. For that reason, we give "SLC Punk!" a 2.5 out of 10.
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