Critique #408: God Damn Trendy-Ass Poser
This was one of the first insights I got to American life back when I was a teenager myself. My friends snuck in this movie into his home while we were all sharing a six pack of Koff that his brought bought him. It was the worst tasting beer to me when I got older, but then, I felt as if I were some sort of bad ass. This movie helped emphasize that chaos of breaking the rules that I usually followed. It introduced a world of rebellion that I had never witnessed. I watched this movie more than I could’ve ever thought possible. The bonus to it: there were comics that I got imported into Finland that this movie was based off of.
The movie is about two punks in Salt Lake City, Utah; the mecca of the Mormon religion. Stevo, played by Matthew Lillard, is the main character and narrates most of the movie to you. He goes through his life as a punk in 1985, telling you about all of the different countercultures that were all connected through a system. As an Anarchist, he believed there shouldn’t be any order; only chaos. The fault with him, though, was that he was still young and wanting to bring down the system. He learned this lesson as he went through all of the people he knew. Sandy, Sean, John the Mod, Eddie, Mike, Trish, Mark, and his best friend, Bob; affectionately known as Heroin Bob, were all described and he couldn’t help but be exciting about the audience meeting them all and explaining how he knew each one of them.
Spoiler Alert! Bob dies in the end and this is where Stevo finally cracks through his rebellious life and finds out where he really belongs. He realizes that Bob was the one who got him into punk, threw him into this mass of rebellion and anarchy. He fought the concept of giving in, of joining the world as a middle-class citizen, but he didn’t realize that growing up meant that he would give up those values down the line. It was hard for him in the end, but he truly found himself when he went to Harvard Law and became an amazing lawyer. He even said that his dad, a lawyer as well, knew all along that he would be taking that road one day. Just like Stevo says at the very end of the film, “Fuck you if you’re already thinking it. I guess when it was all said and done, I was nothing more than a god damn trendy-ass poser.”
RATING: 4.7/5 Movie Reels - After reading the comic books, I did realize they left out a couple of plot points but it was still a great film. It’s just sad that it seems as though they won’t be making SLC Punk 2.
