Director: Richard Linklater Starring: Giovanni Ribisi, Steve Zahn, Parker Posey, Ajay Naidu, Nicky Katt Writer: Eric Bogosian | 4.5/5 SubUrbia The remarkable career of Texan director Richard Linklater is made up of almost nothing but under-appreciated gems - in many cases, masterpieces. Even the Academy, who just recently had the perfect opportunity to honor him with Boyhood, denies him. Looking at Linklater’s vast catalog, the most undervalued film of all just might be SubUrbia, his rip on middle-class complacency and the teens dying to get out. The film may simply suffer from poor placement in the filmography. It came after the sweeping romanticism of Before Sunrise and preceded The Newton Boys, which is more notable simply for being Linklater’s worst film. If you pull SubUrbia from the heap, though, and really examine it, what you will find is the darkest and most perverse film of Linklater’s career. The film’s opening sequence sets a satirical tone with a load of sly jokes at the needless organization of suburb life. The title card of the film is shown over a busy street lined with fast food joints and gas stations. He makes a point of letting us know that the cast will be introduced “in alphabetical order.” The Circle K is changed to the Circle A (anarchy). Tiny jabs like these may mislead the awaiting viewer, SubUrbia is hardly a laughing matter. Sure, the characters joke, but every laugh leaves them a little more hollow than they were before. They are lost young adults who are not even sure what they are revolting against. All they know is that something is wrong. |
Nobody revolts against the system better than the guys and gals that make up this movie. Sooze (Amie Carey) is a visual artist with a knack for performing insanely explicit slam poem workouts. Buff (Steve Zahn) is the explosive party animal of the group who gets by on “stories” of all his sexual exploits. Tim (Nicky Katt) is an angry war vet who has already given up on life. Bee-Bee (Dina Spybey-Waters) is a tender-hearted, recovering addict. And then there is Jeff (Giovanni Ribisi), the character writer Eric Bogosian - this is the first feature film that found Linklater directing someone else's work - filters all of the movie’s events through.
After we are introduced to the core characters, who spend most evenings outside of a service station owned by a Pakistani (Ajay Naidu) who has had it with their loitering, the film’s real turning point comes around. Coming into town is Pony (Jayce Bartok), an old friend who became a famous rock star. Turns out, all these ticking time bombs needed was a slight nudge to send them swirling into an existential crisis. The reunion of old friends, one of which has managed to escape their trapped existence, provides that nudge.
Imagine that the cast of Dazed & Confused grew up a few more years, let the purple haze clear, and then realized that everything they believed was a lie. Having watched the characters in Linklater’s previous films, so full of life and verve, it’s not hard to imagine the teens of SubUrbia living in bliss, blind denial just a few years prior. Not all of us have these moments of awakening where you realize where you need to be looks nothing like where you are, where everything seems to be working against you ever getting where you need to be. Some people are born content and never experience these feelings, but those of us who have know that it's a call you cannot ignore. It’s deafening, and these characters, especially Jeff, are giving in to the crippling weight.
The SubUrbia teens also reminded me of another group of cinematic misfits: the heroine-addled losers of Trainspotting. Released just months before SubUrbia, the film followed Ewan McGregor’s Renton from one mindless score to the next. The characters were not bonded by deep friendship or affection, but by a mutual love of something empty and destructive. Seen in this light, Linklater’s pack here is near the same. There are some obvious tensions between each of these characters, but they ignore them and go about their night because, well, what else is there? The whole gist of the film can be summed up in one interaction between Tim and Jeff. Tim, having just told Jeff an elaborate lie that caused him to freak out and worry for hours, comes at his friend with hard truth: “You wanna believe so bad, you’ll buy anything.” It’s a phrase that will hit you (and Jess) like a sack of corporate-made, government-approved bricks.
(Available on iTunes)
After we are introduced to the core characters, who spend most evenings outside of a service station owned by a Pakistani (Ajay Naidu) who has had it with their loitering, the film’s real turning point comes around. Coming into town is Pony (Jayce Bartok), an old friend who became a famous rock star. Turns out, all these ticking time bombs needed was a slight nudge to send them swirling into an existential crisis. The reunion of old friends, one of which has managed to escape their trapped existence, provides that nudge.
Imagine that the cast of Dazed & Confused grew up a few more years, let the purple haze clear, and then realized that everything they believed was a lie. Having watched the characters in Linklater’s previous films, so full of life and verve, it’s not hard to imagine the teens of SubUrbia living in bliss, blind denial just a few years prior. Not all of us have these moments of awakening where you realize where you need to be looks nothing like where you are, where everything seems to be working against you ever getting where you need to be. Some people are born content and never experience these feelings, but those of us who have know that it's a call you cannot ignore. It’s deafening, and these characters, especially Jeff, are giving in to the crippling weight.
The SubUrbia teens also reminded me of another group of cinematic misfits: the heroine-addled losers of Trainspotting. Released just months before SubUrbia, the film followed Ewan McGregor’s Renton from one mindless score to the next. The characters were not bonded by deep friendship or affection, but by a mutual love of something empty and destructive. Seen in this light, Linklater’s pack here is near the same. There are some obvious tensions between each of these characters, but they ignore them and go about their night because, well, what else is there? The whole gist of the film can be summed up in one interaction between Tim and Jeff. Tim, having just told Jeff an elaborate lie that caused him to freak out and worry for hours, comes at his friend with hard truth: “You wanna believe so bad, you’ll buy anything.” It’s a phrase that will hit you (and Jess) like a sack of corporate-made, government-approved bricks.
(Available on iTunes)