Saturday, March 16, 2024

River's Edge (1986)

IMDb plot summary: A high school slacker commits a shocking act and proceeds to let his friends in on the secret. However, the friends' reaction is almost as ambiguous and perplexing as the crime itself.
Directed by Tim Hunter. Starring Crispin Glover, Keanu Reeves, and Ione Skye.

River's Edge follows a group of teenagers (including Keanu Reeves and Crispin Glover) who learn that one of their friends has murdered his girlfriend in a fit of rage. We follow their reactions, from trying to help their friend hide out to debating whether they should turn him in to just trying to stay away from the whole thing. The film sets kind of a fascinating tone, where clearly big dark things are happening, but it's also got a strange undercurrent of humor that at first I found off-putting. But then I realized where it was centered and it suddenly really, really hit home for me: these teenage quote-unquote "hooligans" are so desperate to be taken seriously, that they're almost impossible to actually take seriously. Obviously their problems are serious and their questions are serious, but it truly captures that horribly awkward phase where all you want to do is yell "I'M AN ADULT" while not knowing yet how un-like an adult that will make you look. And that all snapped it into focus, and I found myself really loving these characters and their stubborn independence to do their own thing in the face of a group of adults who aren't much more capable than they are. There's a childish stubbornness to every person in the movie, and it's fascinating to watch it play out. I feel like this is one I could rewatch a whole bunch and find new pieces of it every time I did.

How it entered my Flickchart:
River's Edge > Selma
River's Edge < Key Largo
River's Edge > Hustle
River's Edge < Saving Private Ryan
River's Edge > Moonstruck
River's Edge < Wolf
River's Edge < Ikiru
River's Edge < Men in Black
River's Edge > Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool
River's Edge < The Minus Man
River's Edge > Florence Foster Jenkins
River's Edge > Mother!
Final spot: #1321 out of 3878, or 66%.

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