Review of River's Edge (1986) by Thomas P — 06 Jun 2014
Beware - bleak disturbing topic.
It's essentially about a teen murder and the alienated, bullied youth who struggle to deal with it.
Gritty and wrenching - you know or have been in a similar situation as an intimidated youth who must decide to either risk personal harm by telling or suffer knowing the truth and that you did nothing about it.
Incredibly well acted independent movie, based on twisted true events - a small town teen kills his girlfriend and leaves her body on the river's edge, but when the teen's frightened and alienated friends and high school classmates find out, they don't know what to do or how to handle it, or even how to turn him in.
The movie focuses on how the murder affects the kids and how they handle such a creepy situation.
Altho unknown then, several now famous actors play here at the beginning of their careers.
Stunning.
The brilliant idiosyncratic actor Crispin Glover plays the disturbed friend who decides to protect the killer, hide the body, and intimidates the surrounding teens into not telling.
Keanu Reeves gives a knowing performance, a solid beginning to his varied tho ultimately successful acting career.
Dennis Hopper adds plenty of creepiness, and becomes the guy who relates and encourages the young killer.
The most chilling part is how ordinary the situations are, despite the dead.
how the shock slowly sinks into each character.
Wisely, the stress, tension and seriousness never lets up even when the characters try to move past.
The tragedy.
An affecting movie that will leave you unsettled.
Like I said, Beware...
This review of River's Edge (1986) was written by Thomas P on 06 Jun 2014.
River's Edge has generally received positive reviews.
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