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SLC PUNK! (1998)


As part of my ongoing quest to find you guys new movies that I think you will like, here's Matthew Lillard. This actor, more than any other, always makes me think of Emily and Heather and Junior High and loving and quoting Scream. ("I always had a thing for ya, Syd!") So in that spirit, let me recommend SLC Punk!, a lovely little indie film starring the very same Matthew Lillard! (Also stars Michael Goorjian, who was Justin on "Party of Five," and Devon Sawa and Jason Segal - "How I Met Your Mother's" Marshall!) Basically, it follows the adventures of Stevo (Lillard) and Herion Bob (Goorjian), the pioneer punks of Salt Lake City, Utah in 1985. Having just graduated from college, they decide that the best way to give the establishment the finger, is to not use all of their newly-acquired education, and rather waste the entire year, sitting around and going to punk parties. Sounds like a good plan, but after four hardcore college punk years, the steam is starting to run out of the movement and Stevo and Bob begin to question the values of anarchy and disorder, especially after Bob falls in love with Trish (Annabeth Gish).

It takes awhile for the film to fall into a chronological story-telling momentum, instead starting with a series of vignettes demonstrating punk culture, detailing why it is necessary to go to Wyoming to get alcohol, espousing urban legends about the dangers of acid, breaking down the social order of Salt Lake City gangs, and Stevo explaining to his parents why he has dyed his hair blue and shaved it into a mohawk. Each of these asides is narrated by Stevo, often talking directly to the camera, and Lillard's style is perfectly at ease in enthusiasticly depicting this world. What really makes the film work is that Stevo and Bob are both smart. Bob is called Heroin Bob because he doesn't use drugs, not the other way around; he's actually afraid of needles and preaches against recreational drug use. Stevo may have a loud and grandiose style, but he is able to coherently explain his beliefs to both his parents and the audience, and often acknowledges the inherent contradictions contained in the punk philosophy. And some of Stevo's favorite conversations are with a hippie about order vs. chaos - he actually thrives on intellectual debate.


What I love about this film is the accurate depiction of that lost feeling after college. You've grown up, rebelled against your parents and their values, filled your head with new ideas and new information, found a new life direction, and then that fails you too. Where do you go from there? It's a confusing time, when you feel so enlightened and excited about new ideas, only to have no place to go with them. I can identify with that feeling, even though I have never entertained the idea of punk and anarchy. And in Matthew Lillard, we finally find a performance that marries his goofy, energetic persona with a new depth that demonstrates his weight as an actor. And even though I've focused on the more serious aspects of the movie, it's really funny, filled with kinetic energy and zanily hilarious anecdotes.