SLC Punk (1998) Review/Rant

!!!! THESE ARE JUST MY OPINIONS IF U DONT AGREE THAT"S FINE !!!!

Recently i've watched the movie 'SLC Punk', it's a movie from the late 90's that is in a lot of movie recommendations for "weird" or "edgy" and I finally caved and watched it as it has been on my watchlist forever. I can say that it's personally a 7/10 or 3/5. Whichever ranking system you prefer. 

I personally didn't think it was a bad movie per say, but it wasn't really good either. The acting and set designs along with the fashions were really good and i could appreciate those aspects of the movie a lot. Although when it comes down to the actual story line it just wasn't that captivating and at times got pretty boring. The use of a 4th wall break and narration from the main character is always fun and is one of my favorite story telling devices, but the actual story felt like it wasn't complete so it was dragged down. 

This is to say that the base story and messaging was clear, a white rich kid looking for a way to rebel holds onto the label punk because that's what his friend was into and is lead through his own story and life of hypocrisy just to realize that he was the same type of person he hated and criticized. It's a good story and after the first 20 minutes I didn't expect there to be anything crazy weird or anything, just a bunch of kids looking for a way to find themselves if anything, but I was expecting more from the story, to at least the characters in the end. It felt unfinished, like there was more to say and see. I'm not sure if that's a result of just how every character got a bad ending, or at least as bad as it could get for each of them, or it's because I was hoping to see more of the other characters. 

There is a lot of exposition of Stevo's friends through him and maybe because it was from his perspective that it could be written off as him being pretty superficial with the people he hung out with, but with how much he cares for his actual friends and other people it felt like there wasn't enough there for me to attach to. Sure, there was "Heroin" Bob and his sad death and he's the second character we got the most out of, but even then as the audience we barely know him. 

And in the second half I was really hoping that we would be able to see his superficial beliefs and maybe even some of him superficial relationships be pushed back, especially with how Brandy was introduced. As a hyper intelligent girl who was probably the first person in the movie to question Steve in a way that actually challenged the way he presented himself and how he does it. She herself points out the hypocrisy of him "fighting the system" yet spending probably a ridiculous amount on hair dye and new clothes that are labeled as punk because it's black clothing with rips and paint on them, because he's trying to present himself a certain way to the world without really following the ideals or when he does seem to have a grasp on them he turns around and immediately contradicts himself and what he stands for or twists them around for his own benefit. 

But after that we see virtually nothing, he's been challenged once and within the next twenty minutes we see his closest friend who we later on understand to be the one to get them both into the punk scene die. Maybe that's the point that i'm not truly understanding, that the whole point of his character might be that he's exactly who he claims to hate and that's all there is to it. 

It's not a bad movie but it could have done more, especially with the amount of weird religious and morality stuff they mentioned a lot in the movie and that seemed to be a pretty big theme throughout. Maybe if it was longer or more of the other characters were explored more, then it wouldn't feel so unsatisfying, or was that the directors choice? To make you feel as unsatisfied as Steve seems to feel in the last scene.