USA,
1998, 97 min
Shown in 1999
CREDITS
- dir
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James Merendino
- prod
-
Sam Maydew, Peter Ward
- scr
-
James Merendino
- cam
-
Greg Littlewood
- editor
-
Esther P. Russel
- cast
-
Matthew Lillard, Michael Goorjian, Annabeth Gish, Jennifer Lien
- source
-
Sony Pictures Classics, 550 Madison Ave., 8th Fl, New York, NY 10022. FAX: 212-833-8844
-
COMMENTS
James Merendino, Michael Goorjian and Matthew Lillard in person.
OTHER
It all starts with the music. Loud. Fast. Hard. Mix in hair dye, combat boots, youthful exuberance and a manic sense of filmmaking, and what emerges is SLC Punk!, James Merendino’s anarchic comedy set in the punk rock scene of Salt Lake City circa 1985. Bolstered by a nonstop soundtrack of classics by the Sex Pistols, the Stooges, Generation X and many more, SLC Punk! is powered by two D.I.Y. dynamos: Merendino’s irrepressible directorial style and Matthew Lillard’s hyperactive performance as Stevo—part green-haired goofball, part astute social commentator. Claiming he’s the only authentic punk rocker in town, Stevo is our tour guide through a social mosh pit of punkers, posers, skinheads and, worst of all, rednecks. With the specter of Harvard Law School looming over him, Stevo expounds on the difficulty of leading an anarchist’s life-style in the land of Zion and on the validity of struggling against the status quo. Today, punk rock has been assimilated within an inch of its life. Alternative is just another marketing buzzword and Iggy Pop songs sell cars. Thankfully, SLC Punk! reminds us why we wanted to dye our hair green in the first place.
—Doug Jones
FACTOID #1
The Festival has screened many debuts, both short- and feature-length, by some of cinema’s most influential artists including Juan Antonio Bardem, Jane Campion, Roman Polanski, Melvin Van Peebles and Lina Wertmüller.
