SLC Punk!
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| SLC Punk! | |
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| Directed by | James Merendino |
| Produced by | Sam Maydew Peter Ward |
| Written by | James Merendino |
| Starring | Matthew Lillard Michael A. Goorjian Annabeth Gish Jennifer Lien |
| Music by | James Merendino David Lee Roth Bruce Slesinger Elmo Weber Elizabeth Westwood |
| Cinematography | Greg Littlewood |
| Editing by | Esther P. Russell |
| Distributed by | Sony Pictures Classics |
| Release date(s) | September 24, 1998 |
| Running time | 97 min. |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
SLC Punk! (1998) is a film directed by James Merendino; SLC is an acronym for Salt Lake City. The movie is about a young punk, called Stevo, who is an "anarchist" (in the sense of advocating chaos, with no relation to actual anarcho-punk culture) in the mid 1980s.
The story is based on real characters; many events in the movie, including party scenes, drug-crazed characters, and others are allegedly based on real events, although these may have been exaggerated.
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[edit] Plot
The film outlines the daily lives of the seemingly only two punks in Salt Lake City, Stevo, who narrates the film, and Heroin Bob, his best friend. The nickname is ironic since Bob is scared of needles and actually believes that any scheduled drug is inherently dangerous. The film is shot in documentary style with frequent soliloquies by Stevo. The day after a wild party, Stevo's life changes when he discovers that Bob has died from an accidental drug overdose on alcohol and percodan that he took the night before for a head ache. Eventually, Stevo decides to take his father's persistent advice to attend law school.
The film is interesting in that no distinguishable timeline is given for the events leading up to the climax. The key events could have taken place over a matter of days, months, or even a few years. Flashback scenes are plentiful, and the only references to the time are the date given at the beginning (1985) and Stevo's reference to Bob's release from the hospital as the start of the "Fall of Hate." The movie is driven by characters and not plot developments.
The character of Stevo is based on the life of writer/director James Merendino, so the movie is semi-autobiographical, although he is named after Stephen Egerton, originally known as Stephen O'Rielly, or Steve-o who played for the Salt Lake punk band Massacre Guys and eventually joined the L.A. bands Descendents and ALL.
[edit] Salt Lake City
The entire film was shot on location in Salt Lake City, Utah, because the directors wanted the title to coincide with the location. Numerous scenes took place in locally well-known areas:
- Stevo's high school, which he calls "North High", is actually West High School and is near downtown Salt Lake City.
- The scene wherein Heroin Bob chastises Stevo for being wasted takes place atop "Presidents Circle" at the University of Utah.
- Stevo introduces the "poseurs" and gives his "Who Started Punk Rock?" speech at the Cottonwood mall.
- Stevo and his girlfriend drop acid at Memory Grove Park, a World War I memorial park.
- Many exterior street scenes occur just north of the Frank E. Moss Federal Courthouse in the downtown area.
- The band playing at the SLC Indian Center is 8 Bucks Experiment.
[edit] Cast
- Matthew Lillard as Stevo
- Michael A. Goorjian as Heroin Bob
- Annabeth Gish as Trish
- Jennifer Lien as Sandy
- Christopher McDonald as Stevo's dad
- Devon Sawa as Sean
- Jason Segel as Mike
- Adam Pascal as Eddie
- Til Schweiger as Mark
- James Duval as John the Mod
- Summer Phoenix as Brandy
- Chiara Barzini as Jennifer
- Kevin Breznahan as Chris
- Christina Karras as Jamie
- Russell Peacock as Jones
[edit] Ratings
- Germany: 16
- Norway: 15
- UK: 15
- USA: R
[edit] External links
- Official website
- SLC Punk! at the Internet Movie Database
- SLC Punk! at Rotten Tomatoes
- SLC Punk! and the Finer Points of Anarchism by Alexander S. Peak
