Undescribable Perfection

It is a performances centric movie

hyped garbage

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Escaping from boredom of family home, where you just sit and watch tv, have a few insults ... to a garbage bin, where you WATCH TV, having idiotic conversations, hunger and diseases. what a glamorous presentation of human looseness.

Okay, punks. If you grew up on punk icons Good Charlotte, if you call Green Day's Dookie or Offspring's Smash "old school", if you paint your leather because you saw it on VH1, if you think the term "hardcore" relates to Ozzfest somehow, if you think skinheads originated in America as a racist gang, if you think tagging cars and brick walls started with hip-hop, if you call slam dancing "moshing"... here's a little history lesson:1. Good Charlotte is a mainstream pop-rock band2. Green Day released great records called 39 Smooth and Kerplunk on Lookout. Offspring's debut (if you can find an original copy) is fast, sloppy, out of tune and pretty cool. But if you're really looking for old school, The Damned can give you a good glimpse into where T.S.O.L (with two songs in the movie) and even Brit-pop come from.3. Four offset bars are required on all leather jackets. Thank Greg Ginn. 4. Hardcore is, well, without explaining American post-punk and straight edge, Dead Kennedys, SNFU, 7 Seconds, Agnostic Front, Crucifucks, Youth of Today, Judge, Gorrila Biscuits and thousands more, not Slipknot. Go listen to Propaghandi. 5. Violent, young, maybe confused in their politics, but ignore the news stories and find a 4-Skins or Sham 69 record. Then look up S.H.A.R.P. on the internet. 6. Look for the Exploited's mantra "Punks Not Dead" on the walls of your local alleys, it's probably still there somewhere. 7. There's a way to do it, look at a Circle Jerks shirt. Stage diving used to be legal... honest.AND... if you needed to be told any of that, go rent Suburbia and you'll take your first step toward enlightenment. Oi, Oi That's yer lot.

Despite the low budget and poor acting, this movie is one of my favorites. I really felt sympathy for the TR kids. I knew some people who were like them, and I even identified with some of them. There was a time in my youth when my friends and I all had a crash pad we could run off to if things got unbearable at home. Another highlight of the film were the excellent performances by TSOL, DI, and the Vandals. It's neat to see how far the 'scene' has come. Many still argue that punk is 'dead', I will not comment. TR kids were angry, poor, outcasts trapped in a world of disappointment, anguish and rejection. They weren't the best of people, one dealt in drugs, others were burglars. They're anti-heroes, showing what life was like "when punk rock was dangerous". This movie is funny at times, with comic relief in the form of a young Flea (before his stint in the Red Hot Chili Peppers) stealing the show in every one of his scenes. There are others that seem just for shock value, such as in the opening scene when a young child gets mauled by a wild dog. All flaws aside, I think that if you're into punk rock, you should at least check out Suburbia.

Suburbia is one of my favourite films. Its cheap in places with tacky sounds, however that only adds to its charm. The characters have appeal and the situations seem real. There is nothing pretentious about it, the protagonists are not made out to be either good or evil, just drifting teenagers who don't think through what they do. The director draws us along with some sympathy for the TR even when they are up to no good, as its clear that deep down they don't actually mean any harm to anyone. A lot of people have rated this film with 10's, I can't see that (and gave it a 7) as it is still basically a cheap B movie. But definitely a good one.