Review of Suburbia (1984) by Gastón José R — 21 Sep 2010

SubUrbia is a 1996 comedy/drama directed by Richard Linklater. Like his previous films (particularly Slacker and Dazed and Confused), it focuses in the point of views of a group of young individuals who have grown rebellious and angsty because of their respective societies' monotony. This time, the main characters are a group of twenty-somethings whose lives seem to be passing by without them growing up.

Jeff (Giovanni Ribisi), Sooze (Amie Carey), Buff (Steve Zahn), Tim (Nicky Katt), and Bee Bee (Dina Spybey) are a group of friends who have known each other since childhood and always hang out in front of a convenience store; a place they refer to as "the corner". The owner of the store is Nazeer (Ajay Naidu), a Pakistani who is always telling them to go away from his property, but they always respond with hostility refusing to leave "the corner". Tension grows between the friends once Neil "Pony" Moynihan (Jayce Bartok) comes back to town after becoming a successful rockstar. The whole movie is based in a fictional Austin suburb called "Burnfield".

The main focus of the film is not the plot, or the story told, but the characters themselves and the relationship between them. Jeff and Sooze have a relationship that begins to crumble once Sooze decides she wants to go to New York to pursue her artistic career. Once Pony arrives, Jeff starts to realize how he has done nothing with his life, and he becomes increasingly frustrated throughout the film. Buff is the goofball of the group; most of the time he is joking around and drinking beer. He is interested in filming, and in one point of the movie he is offered to direct one of Pony's music videos. Tim is Jeff's best friend, he is the tough guy of the group and is also shown drinking most of the time throughout the film. He is the one who has the most aggressive attitude of all the characters in the film, in one scene of the movie he is threatened with a gun by Nazeer's wife Pakeesa for bullying Nazeer. Bee Bee is by far the quietest of the main characters, she supports Sooze with her artistic vision and is shown to be a former alcoholic.

Every character is crucial to the plot of the movie; all of them have their moments of truth, their moments of angst, their moments of joy, and their moments of hope and redemption. The characters' different personalities and actions are what bring the movie together, and they are held by excellent performances.

This is a poignant, sometimes dark movie that shows us what growing up is all about and at the same time it invites us to endure life because happens what happens, it goes on. The only problems I found in this movie are that some of the characters (mainly Buff) may be obnoxious at times, and that the tension between them may be uncomfortable at times. However, it's clear that's exactly the goal of the movie, so they are easy to forgive. This is a dark comedy I would recommend to everyone, it may not be accessible to all the viewers because of the fact it does not revolve around a story, but nevertheless is a study on life and youth. The movie is full of memorable quotes and conversations, some lines are really hard to forget. The soundtrack of the movie is also really good, it features some great bands such as Sonic Youth, Superchunk, Skinny Puppy and Beck. Sadly this movie is hard to find because it has never been released on DVD, but it is definitely one of the most representative movies of the 90's. If you get the chance to see it, definitely see it.