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SLC Punk!
EMAILPRINTSony Pictures Classics
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 21 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 24 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by: James Merendino
Directed by: James Merendino
Release Date:
Theatrical: April 16, 1999
DVD: October 12, 1999
Running Time: 97 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for pervasive language, drug use, violent anti-social behavior and some sexuality
Starring Matthew Lillard, Michael A. Goorjian, Annabeth Gish, Jennifer Lien, Christopher McDonald, Devon Sawa, Jason Segel, and Adam Pascal
To grow up in America is to, at one point or another, rebel against the world around you. If you're Stevo (Lillard) and you live in Reagan-era Salt Lake City, then, well...you just have to rebel a little bit harder. To this recent grad, the world is his enemy, anarchy his religion, and the Ramones, The Specials and the Dead Kennedys his muses. As he takes us on a guided tour of his life, we meet all sorts of punks, poseurs, mods, freaks and a few others best described as indescribable. Stevo's ex-hippie father sees his lifestyle as a rite of passage and urges him to attend Harvard Law School like himself. Not to sell out to the system, but to buy in. For Stevo, underneath the mohawk haircuts, earrings and leather, the idea, painfully, has some merit. The question becomes; how do you stay hard-core and still hope for a life beyond? [Sony Pictures Clasics]
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector
A hearty style of self-referential filmmaking that only adds to the persuasiveness of Lillard’s stunning performance.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
A surprisingly genial and affecting comedy about the trials and tribulations of teenage rebellion during the Reagan '80s.
Entertainment Weekly Michael Sauter
For a while, angry young Stevo (Lillard) turns his quest for total anarchy into a grungy, giddy, randomly violent rave. Then reality creeps up and, well, it bites.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
[Lillard's] performance dominates the film, and he does a subtle, tricky job of being both an obnoxious punk and a kid in search of his direction in life. He's very good.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Hazel-Dawn Dumpert
Ultimately a wiser and truer film than its crass and cartoony beginnings would have us believe.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
The film has an undeniable energy, and, at times, it works as light entertainment, but there is a problem. The central character is consistently aggravating.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris
It's handsome filmmaking that doesn't surface until the final 25 minutes during which Stevo and company's sense of marginalization achieves the palpable, emotional import that's more expressive than anything its characters' have to bitch about.
Read Full Review >Newsweek Andrea C. Basora
We don't really need some young punk to tell us that anarchy is an untenable idea, but watching him live it is an invigorating experience.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Rita Kempley
Lillard, who played the squirrelly Stuart in "Scream," brings a mischievous sense of humor and an easygoing charm to his potentially unsympathetic character.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Amy Taubin
Merendino's most innovative directorial strategy is to collapse present and past by having Lillard shout Stevo's reflections about his youthful rebellion directly at the camera, while the scene he's describing in the past tense takes place behind him. I know it sounds like a Brechtian affectation, but it works.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack
So forced and contrived in delivery that it's tedious. That's not good when the intention is to be audacious.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Mary Elizabeth Williams
The movie starts out as a sweet piece of hardcore pie, full of energy and "Repo Man"-esque satire, but ultimately deteriorates into a Percodan-flavored "Afterschool Special."
Read Full Review >The New York Times Elvis Mitchell
Likable for its outlandishness, less so when it shows a self-important streak.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Merendino's film is lacking the streamlined cohesion it needs to spike itself in your cortex as hoped, but it is about as accurate a punk film as I've seen in some time, especially when it comes to the horrors and boredoms of small-scene life.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Tom Meek
What begins as a poetically offbeat comedy, full of energy and verve, turns woefully mundane as the protagonists become introspective and enlightened.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
Ultimately, SLC Punk! doesn't have enough dimension to maintain dramatic interest.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
Though Lillard's excitable tone keeps promising wild comic adventures, the sequences are uniformly flat and humour-free.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak
It's an unenlightening film that proves youthful anarchy is just as dull as a midlife crisis, and sadly, as predictable, too.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
Very possibly the most ruthlessly irritating comedy since the dreaded "S.F.W." attempted to put its finger on the pulse of young America, and that's saying something.
Read Full Review >New Times (L.A.) Michael Sragow
What it offers at its shockingly sappy core is a familiar view of adolescent rebellion as a goofy but inevitable phase.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.7 (out of 10) based on 24 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Hailey H. gave it a9:
I love SLC punk its an amazing movie. i live in salt lake city and it was kinda cool to see a movie about living in it. for those of you who dont like this movie i pitty you.
Matt A. gave it a1:
I can't even imagine the type of people that are giving this film high ratings. Some critics have said that the redeeming factor of the movie is Lillard's perfomance. I couldn't disagree more. Lillard is just as annoying and over the top here as he is any of the movies in his pathetic catalogue. An altogether awful film, in the same territory as any Nora Ephron effort. Avoid unless you are a seriously depressed person who dyes your hair blue and worships punk music.
Levi C. gave it a10:
This is one of the greatest movies of all time. It blends comedy with drama.
Ashley J gave it a10:
It's wether it's off or not I still think that it's the best movie! + Bobby's hot!
Sean gave it an8:
An interesting and too true movie, especially if you live in SLC, like myself.
Kiera H. gave it a10:
This is my favorite movie ever! It's so awesome.
Clayno H. gave it a3:
Ok im back, its been a long time since when i did my original vote and my second is a lot lower. mainly becuase ive learned a lot more since then and now realize how off the movie is and i now have a respect for better movies and this one doesnt quite make it..funny how things change.
