Review of Johnny Suede (1991) by Alison O — 04 Jun 2004

Best in Show: Brad Pitt.

One for the future: Catherine Keener.

Stand-out scene: Bathtime.

Brainer or no-brainer: Brain bender.

Stands up to one viewing or repeated?: Repeated.

DVD commentary any good?: n/a.

TV.

Released shortly after Pitt's pivotal role in Thelma and Louise this is one strange movie packed with curiosities and not atall what I was expecting. Pitt is the Johnny Suede of the title; young dumb and full of...energy who adopts his fabric-based surname when a pair of suede shoes fall on a phonebox he is making a call in at the beginning of the movie. The (black) suede shoes provide the finishing touch to his rockabilly fashion sense and wannabe singer-songwriter persona, his life being that of an itinerant decorator, heart-breaker and hairspray purchaser (he sports a gravity-defying quiff). Along the way he meets Freak Storm (Nick Cave), an established singer-songwriter and Yvonne (Catherine Keener) a schoolteacher whom he begins a relationship with. As a drop-dead gorgeous, sharp-dressed dope, Pitt certainly looks the part which perhaps unfairly painted him early on in his career as a dumb blonde. This is a film which at least cannot be dismissed as predictable and at best captures the fairly impressive formative steps into the acting world for both Pitt and Catherine Keener.