Review of Suburbia (1984) by Shawn F — 16 Sep 2017

Uneven, too long, and above all frustrating to watch. While it is well-directed, smartly written, and solidly acted, I never found myself engaged in the story of "SubUrbia". Linklater has explored themes of young adults' discontent with their lives in films like "Slacker" and "Dazed and Confused" and he is very good at it, but one of the things why those themes work in these films is because of the characters.

Watching "Slacker" and "Dazed", you can tell that he cares about the people he is depicting and that he likes these people. The characters in this film, however, are just so annoying and I have no affection for these people.

Although some of the dialogue is very interesting and the performances are very natural, I find it difficult to connect with any of them. This might just be my least favorite Linklater film.