James Merendino - SLC Punk! (1998), 5/10

SLC Punk! has its moments, but the film generally feels like an unfocused self-parody veiled in coming-of-age, a rather simple narrative stemming from Merendino’s life experience. The film tells the story of Stevo, his friend and roommate Bob, and a cast of other punk adjacents who surround their crew. Most of its shortcomings are faults of the genre, and though the narration becomes more palatable as the film progresses, it never shakes its silliness, yet rarely produces laughs. Some of the more interesting characters and relationships get less screen time, while the less interesting arcs take the lion’s share. Stevo’s relationship with his parents, for instance, is part of what makes the film watchable, comedic, and retrospectively interesting, yet they only get two scenes altogether. The broader through line, a maturation beyond the short-sighted punk ethos, is effective but falls flat when intertwined with a shaky story. Stevo’s newfound love after his blind date feels not only forced, but downright unsatisfying. His decision to pursue Harvard Law as a response to death feels equally as frustrating, particularly considering it amounts to a theatrical afterthought, given practically no narrative or visual gravity, simply capping off a film that continues to escape its own interesting topics of discussion.