Review of SLC Punk (1998) by Jonathan A — 21 Aug 2009

Coming-of-age story about Stevo, a college grad punk living in repressed Salt Lake City during the 1980s who learns what it really means to rebel or conform. Often funny, often sad, often incredibly thought-provoking and philosophical.

"SLC Punk" is adept at hitting all the right notes when it comes to transmitting it's message to the audience as well as being emotionally adequate in order to be accessible. Clearly, this was another case of "never judge a book by it's cover" as I was taken aback by what turned out to be a very intelligently-written script and a fine performance from Matthew Lillard.

The sensibility of "punk" lifestyle, or however as Lillard's character puts it does not necessarily need to apply towards the subculture in general as the film might imply, but instead preaches the need for one to truly understand their place in the world as a major part of identity formation.

Call me a nerd, but somewhere in the back of my mind, I'm thinking developmental psychologists would get a kick out of this one.