Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (November 23, 2022)
Before a screener of 1998’s SLC Punk came across my doorstep years ago, I don't think I'd ever even heard of the film. I might have seen some mention of it on other websites, but that was the extent of my knowledge before I watched it.
A film about punks in Salt Lake City during the mid-1980s? Hmm - looked like another stinker from the freebie pile.
Happily, however, I found SLC Punk to be surprisingly provocative and entertaining. While its subject matter certainly held the possibility that it would be a corny film that would try far too hard to milk the "fish out of water" theme implied by the title, it didn't do so.
Set in Utah circa 1985, Steveo (Matthew Lillard) just finished college. However, despite his father’s (Christopher McDonald) desire for him to go to law school, Stevo prefers to hang out with his friends and embrace the nihilistic punk lifestyle.
This leads Steveo, best buddy Heroin Bob (Michael A. Goorjian) and others on various misadventures. Eventually matters lead down paths that force Steve-O to become more serious about life and the future.
To my surprise, SLC Punk offers little that sticks to the aforementioned “fish out of water” concept. Instead, the film was more of a "coming of age" story that ultimately reminded me of many of those John Hughes movies from the 1980s.
Though that might imply that SLC Punk will become trite, instead it seems less predictable and routine than the average genre tale. Indeed, I didn't actually figure out that it would take that "coming of age" route until more than halfway through the picture, as up until that point, it seemed more like a fun comedic romp through the characters' lives.
The film slows down a great deal as it becomes more real toward the end. This makes the movie less frenetic and wildly entertaining, but it also addes a level of realism.
I must admit that I find some of the twists and turns to seem contrived. However, these don't detract from my overall enjoyment of the movie.
SLC Punk clearly doesn’t deliver a perfect film - or even a great one - but it's very good and can be quite entertaining. I like the fact that although it easily could go the "period piece" route, it doesn't do so.
Indeed, the film barely reveals its era. If we weren't told it was 1985 and occasionally reminded that Reagan was in the White House, it could have been from any year between 1979 and today.
That's because of the strange quality of punks: they're eternally stuck in the late 1970s. I think punks are like goths, as there'll always be this little cult of teens who buy into that look and sound and it'll never change.
Despite various bits of publicity, punks never had all that big a scene, and their image has not changed one iota since they emerged in the mid-1970s. That means that the characters of SLC Punk easily could be in a film set today but little would need to be changed, as right now there are teens out there who look and act exactly like these folks.
Happily, SLC Punk doesn't take too many cheap shots at its locale, either. As I mentioned earlier, the concept of punks in Salt Lake City (aka "The Conservativist Place On Earth") easily could have been milked for broad laughs at the expense of the locals, but the film rarely does that.
Again, just as our characters could be from any year in the last 45, the location could be almost anywhere in the US. Yeah, it had to be somewhere not too hip, but that appellation fits the vast majority of the country.
Ultimately, the film concentrates more on the quirks of its characters and their stories than it does the locale and the premise. In that way, it's a lot like something such as Pulp Fiction, as much of the entertainment in that film came from interactions that had little to do with the characters' careers ways of life.
SLC Punk doesn’t reside on a level with Pulp Fiction, but it's awfully witty and clever nonetheless. Much of the film's energy came from a charged performance by Matthew Lillard as our lead character Stevo.
I'm not sure Lillard has much of a range, as he sure likes to mug and go over the top. However, he works well here.
Lillard brings just the right level of smugness and obnoxiousness to Stevo but still kept him likable. He also allows for growth in the character when necessary.
Goorjian is also quite good as Stevo's buddy Heroin Bob. He portrays him as goofy and sort of dopey but nicely grounded and human as well.
Chalk up SLC Punk as a pleasant surprise. A period piece that doesn’t reek of nostalgia and a “coming of age” tale that mostly lacks sentimentality, Punk provides a funny and entertaining flick.
