SubUrbia . Austin Chronicle . 03-23-98

SubUrbia

DIRECTED BY: Richard Linklater

REVIEWED: 03-23-98

The movies always seemed to treat punk rockers as cartoonish thugs or brainless weirdos (or somehow got them confused with biker types); Suburbia (aka The Wild Side, D: Penelope Spheeris, 1983; with Chris Pederson, Bill Coyne, Flea, Timothy O'Brien, D.I., T.S.O.L., the Vandals) is a rare exception, an accurate, sympathetic look at the SoCal hardcore era. T.R. stands for Totally Rejected, a group of kids who are spurned by everyone but each other and squat in an abandoned subdivision that was initially intended to be a cozy L.A. suburb. The only residents now are the T.R. kids and roving packs of wild dogs; the local rednecks take great sport in shooting the wild dogs and see the T.R.s as the next nuisance to eradicate. The punks get in fights with Camaro-driving heshers at shows, steal food, and generally use their wits to survive, with Jack (Pederson) helping keep the loose-knit bunch unified. Unfortunately a cheap, manipulative ending almost invalidates the whole movie, but Suburbia (not to be confused with Rick Linklater's SubUrbia) is a sensitive, time-capsule look at a period that's all over with now, with music by some of the better L.A. bands of the time.

--Jerry Renshaw

Full Length Reviews
SubUrbia
SubUrbia

Capsule Reviews
SubUrbia

Other Films by Richard Linklater
Before Sunrise
The Newton Boys

Film Vault Suggested Links
Multiple Futures
Men Cry Bullets
Valley of the Dolls

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