SLC Punk!

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

A hearty style of self-referential filmmaking that only adds to the persuasiveness of Lillard’s stunning performance.

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.

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.

LA Weekly Hazel-Dawn Dumpert

Ultimately a wiser and truer film than its crass and cartoony beginnings would have us believe.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

Likable for its outlandishness, less so when it shows a self-important streak.

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.

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.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Ultimately, SLC Punk! doesn't have enough dimension to maintain dramatic interest.

Variety Dennis Harvey

Energetic but poorly structured.

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.

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.

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.

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.