Thank you Amazon Prime for getting the rights to stream
this film. I’ve been waiting a while for this film to become available
somewhere and now it has arrived. The wait was certainly worth it. What a
surprising and unique film. Tim Hunter directs a script by Neal Jimenez about a
group of teenagers who find out one of their friends, John (played by Daniel
Roebuck), strangled his girlfriend to death. Layne (played by Crispin Glover
with over-the-top swagger that is typical of the actor) wants to protect his
friend and help him get away with it. His mission is to make sure all of his
friends are on the same page but Matt (in one of Keanu Reeves first roles) is
conflicted and wants to do the right thing. Yet this isn’t a coming of age
flick, it’s more of a weird noir about teenage detachment. Two great characters
are Matt’s younger brother Tim (played by Joshua John Miller) who is the
definition of youthful rage and Feck (played by the always watchable Dennis
Hopper) an ex-motorcycle gang rider who deals pot and has a love affair with a
blow-up doll. But back to Crispin’s performance: it’s easy to declare it as
being bad and writing it off as a young actor over-acting. He points while he’s
talking and makes exaggerated body motions. Yet I’d argue his passion and pure
connection to his character is so impressive that it is his character that
resonates the most. That’s one of the things I loved about this film, it could
have been a deep drama and mistakenly turned into something typical but instead
it’s kind of funny and horrific at the same time. It says more about teenage
angst and death than most teenage-themed films. I’d say if you want to see a
Rebel without a Cause but where all the kids are Rebels (if more indifferent
than angry) this is the film for you. Grade: A-
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