SLC Punk
with Matthew Lillard, Michael Goorjian, Annabeth Gish
Written and Directed by James Merendino
by Jody Boynes
Salt Lake City, home of the Mormons, is the unlikely setting for this tale of two punks in the land of rednecks circa 1985. Matthew Lillard and Michael A. Goorjian play Stevo and Heroin Bob (he’s terrified of needles and would never take any sort of drugs) respectively. They’re tired of listening to Rush and playing Dungeons & Dragons on weekends while every other clique in the area is partying it up, so they decide to be the town’s resident aliens from another mindset. One dyes his hair blue, the other gets a mohawk, and they both become anarchists. The story is more than just the daily exploits of the two as it evolves into their struggle to remain true to their beliefs while growing older and maturing.
From the beginning, both try to steer clear of being poseurs or fake punks who listen to the Sex Pistols (Lillard, who ironically enough resembles Johnny Rotten one day and Sid Vicious the next, acts as narrator and says, “True anarchy is a belief, not some words in a song”), but when three or four years roll around and the guys are no further along in causing the collapse of the United States from Salt Lake City out, they start questioning what they’re doing. Bob has taken a liking to a young poet in the group (Annabeth Gish), while Stevo has completed enough college courses to get accepted to Harvard Law School. Stevo has the added pressure of having his incredibly understanding sixties rebel turned corporate monger dad (Christopher MacDonald) hovering about telling him to get over this phase and get on with his life. The main problem with all of this is that anarchists live by a rule of thumb that the world is only a blink away from annihilation, so when several years go by and the planet is still revolving, it’s high time to either check out or check in (to the real world). By the time the final reel rolls, one of our two anti-heroes plays Rotten to the other’s Vicious (in terms of existence). All in all, a somewhat interesting yet disjointed look at a seldom seen tribe of our society. As a gangly kid with a dyed, psychobilly hair cut at a closed-minded Boston technical college in 1983 who got threatened one time because he didn’t know the lead singer of the Dead Kennedys, I found the feeling of abandonment lacking throughout the picture save for one scene. Lillard’s performance and ramblings in particular were good throughout, although I thoroughly disliked the Trainspotting ending. The kicking soundtrack features tunes by the Dead Kennedys (it’s Jello Biafra, all right!), Ramones, The Specials, The Exploited, Generation X, Blondie, Fear, Adam Ant, Minor Threat, Velvet Underground, Roxy Music, Stooges, and Van Halen (which band doesn’t belong?) and is well worth the money.
