SLC Punk! (1998)

Title: SLC Punk! (1998)

Director: James Merendino

Cast: Matthew Lillard, Michael A. Goorjian, Christopher McDonald, Devon Sawa, Jason Segel, James Duval

SLC Punk! attempts to explain what living the Punk lifestyle and being an Anarchist is all about. It takes you to the shows and the parties and the mayhem filled nights and all the stories and dramas behind them. It achieves this by having its main character -a Punk Rocker and Anarchist named Steve-O- break the fourth wall and speak directly at us, explaining to us the ins and outs of the anarchist/punk lifestyle. Kind of like the way that Ferris Bueller would show us how to “fake out parents” in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986). In SLC Punk! we have Matthew Lillard, not Matthew Broderick taking us on a tour of the Punk Rock World. It deconstructs it, analyzing what’s bullshit and what isn’t, the benefits and the downsides. Just what is Punk Rock? Is it the music? Is that what drives it? Is it the clothes you wear? Your hair style? Is it just a state of mind?  

On SLC Punk! we follow Steve-O through the landscape of Salt Lake City Utah’s Punk scene. We meet his friends, we go with him to a wild and crazy punk show, we go with him to a house party, we see the drugs they take, the booze they over do and we see them not give a fuck. Basically, these are a group of kids, who say they are anarchists, who say they hate the status quo, who say they hate posers, yet their actions sometimes contradict them. Steve-O, the main character in the film, is going through an existential dilemma, and we go on the ride with the guy. He is questioning everything, even himself. He is a character who unlike 80% of humanity, is fully awake, so, what comes next?

Punks have always been portrayed as stupid, angry, and lazy. In films, they are always depicted as alcoholics, drug addicts, with nothing better to do than sniff some glue, or break a couple of windshields with a bat. Though this depiction of the punk rock might be a generalization, I have to admit that for the most part, this portrayal is dead on. I mean, I was part of the Puerto Rican Punk scene back when it was thriving, and this is pretty much how it went down. I didn’t dress like a punk, but I went to the shows, I hung out, and as I always do, I analyzed human behavior, I was a little bit like Steve-O in many ways, always observing and commenting. The   impression I got from my observations of the punk scene during the early 00’s was that most of these kids were pissed off at the world; they knew the world was upside down and they hated that fact with a passion. And so, the mentality was “fuck the world, let’s party and burn ourselves out while we’re young!” The mentality was also, no job, no money and no plans for the future, a “let the chips fall where they may” stance on life. The angry nature of punk music only fueled the anger and the discontent in the air. I get the punk scene and I understand where the anger comes from, we live in a pretty messed up world, being angry at it seems like a natural reaction. And I love the energy in these shows, I still go to them for this very same reason, I want to see people reacting to the world! At times the whole thing feels cathartic. The mosh pits, the head banging, the beer flying through the air, the screaming; sometimes these shows feel like going to the church of Punk Rock in which the lead singer preaches it like it is and the audience jumps and screams as if the Holy Spirit has possessed them! The way I see it, we need to vent out that anger and frustration, punk rock gives you away to do that because at the heart of punk rock beats with anger and rebellion. The punk scene still exists in Puerto Rico, only not as intensely as I remember it. I guess the Punks grew up, got jobs…they joined the system after all.

And that’s why I enjoyed SLC Punk! so much, it feels genuine. While the film can be seen as a homage to what being a Punk is all about (warts and all) it also criticizes the Punk lifestyle and sees many faults in it. The film goes to great lengths to identify the ‘posers’, the fakes that aren’t really punk, they just want to look cool. It also asks the question, should being angry be the only thing that you do? Or can you do more than that? What I got from the film was that yes, the punk/anarchist lifestyle is directly entwined with the music, because the music, speaks about the frustrations and concerns of the world we live in. In many ways, Punks are awake and conscious about many of the harsh realities of the world we live in, the injustices, this is where the anger stems from, which is something I like about the whole thing, these are characters that don’t like to take things for granted, they question, they fight, they protest. Matthew Lillard’s Steve-O is an angry young dude, who hates his town, hates his parents, but loves his friends, loves to party, he is basically a guy looking for happiness in a very unhappy world. But he’s going through a process. He analyzes everything; he is always being inquisitive, always questioning things. Actually, there’s this cool moment when he states “I am wide awake!” I love how he is constantly questioning himself. Why am I who I am? Where am I in life? How can I bring forth some true change to this world and how can I go about it? I like the fact that Steve-O is an individual who is a punk rocker, an anarchists, but is intelligent enough to question his own beliefs, which is something we should all stop and do at various stages of our lives.

SLC Punk! Functions in the same way that Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting(1996) does, it’s the kind of film that’s about a bunch of messed up dudes and dudettes, some do lots of drugs, some are inclined towards violence, some are crazier than others, some are gonna die, some are going to choose life, grow up and change. Because at the end of the day, no matter how punk rock you are, you’re gonna have to face the facts that you have to eat, you have to have a place to live, you have to find some sort of way to give something to society and the only way to do that is to make some money, somehow. Matthew Lillard by the way, turns in a good performance, this is probably the role for which he will be most remembered by, he comes off as likable, and there’s actually a scene where the dude got to me with his performance.  Interesting how the proposed sequel will be called Punk’s Dead. I don’t know if it will ever get made or not, but it would sure be interesting to see where these characters have gone to after all these years. Did they mature? Did they join the system? Did they end up dead in a ditch somewhere? Did they leave Punk rock behind or is it still a part of their lives? James Merendino, the director behind SLC Punk!, mentions that the sequel will have all the previous actors reprising their roles. Merendino says he owes it to the fans of SLC Punk! To do a worthy sequel, I’m looking forward to seeing where Steve-O has ended up in his post punk years.

Rating: 4 out of 5

The Doom Generation (1995)

Title: The Doom Generation (1995)

Director: Gregg Araki

Cast: Rose McGowan, James Duval, Johnathon Schaech

Review:

The Doom Generation is a film with characters that exist on the basis of two basic primal human needs: food and sex, that’s all these kids think about, that’s all these kids need. At one point, Amy, one of the main characters in the film tells one of the boys “You’re like a support system for a cock!” Referencing the guys none stop sexual advances. The story for The Doom Generation is all about these two teenagers, Jordan White (James Duval) and Amy Blue (Rose McGowan), both of whom feel like they don’t belong in society, like they don’t fit. They are the traditional outcasts. Jordan is kind of innocent in a way, with a look of naiveté on his face while Amy is imposing, intimidating and strong. It kind of feels like Amy has got the ‘cojones’ in the relationship. Everything changes when they decide to go to a convenience store to buy munchies and cigarettes and for no apparent reason; the scene quickly escalates into a full fledged massacre, complete with decapitation and all. Joining the gruesome twosome is a guy named Xavier Red (Johnathon Schaech) whom they decide to call ‘X’ for short. So Amy, Jordan and X decide to go on a cross country trip, running from the law and surviving as best they can by holding up convenience stores along the way, Natural Born Killers (1994) style.

And speaking of Natural Born Killers, this is the film that The Doom Generation mostly resembles, and it makes sense that it should be influenced by it, Natural Born Killers made a huge impact in the world when it was first released in 1994 because of its relentless levels of violence. The Doom Generation is like a low rent version of Natural Born Killers. It’s got the violence and it’s got the sex too, but there are various differences between the two films. For example, Natural Born Killers is about two lovers on a murder spree through America, but the film is a comment on the way the media influences people, how they distort the truth, how they’ll make heroes out of villains. The Doom Generation plays with the same premise of murderous lovers (all three of them) but it takes the opportunity to comment on human sexuality, namely: threesomes, bisexuality and homosexuality. So in a very palpable way, The Doom Generation is also an entirely different film than Natural Born Killers. But of course, this being a Gregg Araki film, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that it touches upon human sexuality in one form or another, this seems to be one of his favorite themes. Or rather, what distinguishes him as a director, it’s his staple. The opening credits say that this is "A Heterosexual Movie by Gregg Araki" which couldn't be further from the truth! 

The Doom Generation is part of Araki’s “Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy” a series of films that focuses on the lives of troubled teenagers in America. This trilogy is composed of the films Totally Fucked Up (1993), The Doom Generation and Nowhere (1997). All three are about bisexual/gay teenagers. In The Doom Generation Jordan and Amy are heterosexuals, but Jordan has bisexual tendencies, so when ‘X’, the loose cannon of the group makes some advances towards Jordan, suddenly we’re talking about a threesome. Throughout the whole movie there’s this sexual tension between all three characters to the point where you just know that at some point something’s gonna happen between the three, so if you’re not comfortable with these type of scenarios, don’t bother with The Doom Generation. Gregg Araki, the director of this film had identified himself first as a homosexual, then as a bisexual. They guy even married actress Kathleen Robertson who starred in Nowhere, so the guy plays on both teams. This is probably why many of his films have such a strong bisexual element to them. On The Doom Generation, the three main characters want to live to the beat of their own drum, they don’t care about society’s rules, they want to do whatever the hell they want to do, but how will the world react to their behavior?

Totally Fucked Up also deals with that issue of how the world perceives gays. In The Doom Generation we meet a group of true blue Americans who find homosexuality repulsive, and so suddenly Jordan, Amy and X find themselves in the clutches of these people who don’t accept the trios’ sexual exploits. This is a theme that’s prevails in many of Araki’s movies, the fear of gay bashers. Those individuals who hate gay people so much that they are willing to incur in violent acts against them. Similar characters were also displayed in Brokeback Mountain (2005), a film in which a group of gay bashers kick the living shit out of two gay lovers, even going as far as killing. One of the saddest things in the world is not being able to accept others for being who they are. I mean, you don’t have to agree with another person’s lifestyle, but to incur in violent acts against people who are not like you is something I’ve never agreed with, and neither does Araki. In The Doom Generation, a group of gay bashers are represented as being 100% American, even going as far as singing the national anthem as they are bashing the skulls of gay people, as if saying, this is the kind of people America is producing. Araki also displays them with a Nazi swastika on their chests; so to Araki, gay bashers are on the same level of evil as Nazi’s. I understand the allusion, because Nazi’s where basically individuals who wanted everyone to be like them, they didn’t want blacks, or Jews, or people who weren’t Catholics, so that comparison is completely valid in my book.

At the same time, Jordan, Amy and X also represent America, if we put their three last names together, they are Red, White and Blue, so these three murderous, sexually adventurous individuals are also a product of the U.S. of A. Araki is probably wanting to say we are all products of the same messed up society. This is also a theme that is a constant in the movie. “This world is fucked up” “I sometimes feel the city is sucking away at my soul” and “Ever feel that reality is more twisted than dreams?” are just some of the many lines of dialog on this film that accentuate the status quo of society. Also, throughout the entire movie, you’ll see these big signs that display messages like “Prepare for the Apocalypse” and “Welcome to Hell”. When these kids buy something at a convenience store, and they do visit a few of them, the total for their purchase is always 6.66, no matter where they go! As if pointing to the fact that these kids are cursed somehow, or as the title suggests ‘doomed’. All these elements add up to a not so subtle way of establishing the films pessimistic (or truthful?) outlook on the world and the way the young people of the 90’s perceived it, funny how things don’t change much from decade to decade, though I think this is something normal, everybody, no matter what generation they are from think the world is ending.

Ultimately, this trio of knuckleheads might not come off as the most likable of characters, in fact, they do some downright despicable things, but I don’t think Araki was trying to portray wholesome, goody little two shoes on this movie. In fact, he was going for the polar opposite of that. He was going for the most messed up teens he could think of, it feels as if Araki was trying to point a finger at the kind of people that are emerging from the society we live in; people with no morals, no rules and no fidelity to each other.  Amy, Jordan and X function without a conscience. “Guilt is for married old people!“  They are in many ways like animals, existing on primal needs. And this strong sexual need isn’t displayed in the film as something that comes only from men, though Amy criticizes X for only thinking of sex, she herself has been with a large number of people, most of which she doesn’t even remember! So it’s like everyone on this movie is a sex maniac! So my friends, this is one of those movies that explores a side of sexuality that because of its controversial nature is addressed in films only sporadically, last time I saw a film about a threesome was Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) and on that one too things go down the drain, I guess the point these type of films are trying to make is that threesomes just don’t work. At one point or another jealousy will show its ugly head and things will just get sour.

Rating: 3 ½ out of 5