Suburbia (1984)

A motley bunch of disaffected punk kids take up residence in a grubby old abandoned home on the outskirts of an affluent California suburb and form their own messed-up, but loyal and loving alternative family. Unfortunately, a hostile group of intolerant redneck vigilantes who call themselves the Citizens Against Crime take issue with the punks living in their neighborhood. Writer/director Penelope Spheeris's extremely raw and rough-around-the-edges low-budget indie drama astutely captures the profound sense of burning anger and acute alienation that were key hallmarks of the 80's punk scene. Moreover, Spheeris neither glorifies nor vilifies the punks; instead she shows these sullen malcontents in a blunt and brutally honest warts'n'all manner that's both nonjudgmental and compassionate, but never sappy or exploitative. Better still, Spheeris does a commendable job of precisely nailing why these kids are so bitter and rebellious by showing that they are the toxic products of such things as poverty, prejudice, and broken dysfunctional families. Granted, the acting from the cast of mostly unprofessional thespians is admittedly crude and amateurish, but the kids are nonetheless believable in their roles, with stand-out contributions from Chris Pederson as charismatic punk leader Jack Diddley, Jennifer Clay as the hard-bitten Sheila, Timothy Eric O'Brien as the surly Skinner, Flea as the rowdy Razzle, and Grant Miner as zonked-out druggie Keef. Don Allen is likewise solid as pragmatic police officer William Rennard. Timothy Suhrstedt's no-frills cinematography gives the picture an appropriately gritty and unpolished look. Alex Gibson's bluesy thrashin' score and the first-rate punk music soundtrack are both on the money excellent and effective. The shocking downbeat ending packs a potent punch. A very powerful and praiseworthy exploration of an interesting and often misunderstood youth subculture.

Penelope Spehhers' "Suburbia" is just like "The Goonies", but so boring and typical, and instead of a bunch of mid-class kids we got a bunch of homeless punk kids playing the neighborhood's bad guys. Maybe Sphheris wanted to make sort of a denounce of all those kids who live in the streets, but she just idealizes that way of life. Come on, this has nothing to do with REAL margination and poverty. The movie is just an excuse to show some punk rock bands playing and some scenes of street vandalism... and that's OK only if you do it in style, but this is not the case.*My rate: 3/10

Yes yes. I was not raised in the 80's but I've always been into the punk scene thanks to not only my uncles but also my brothers. Though it was more like a B rate movie I loved it! The acting wasn't very good but damn it the actors got the point across! It was so accurate as well. I just loved it. I kinda wish they could of got more band to perform for it but I was extremely happy with their choice of bands. (T.S.O.L., D.I., and The Vandals) Especially D.I.! ("Richard Hung Himself" is one of the best songs ever!) This movie is clearly not a movie to watch with family. (Unless they aren't as strict as my own) This is due to the nudity, large amount of cussing and violence in the film. As learned from experience when my parents found it and thus burned all my band shirts, docs, jeans, and denim jacket.

This is not a documentary, although much of it is allegedly based on fact. What "Suburbia" does, and does well, is capture a moment in LA/OC punk. If you were there, you recognize almost every character in the film, and you probably recognize a lot of the "actors." It's a grab bag of punk "types": the skinhead, the conehead, the goth, the mohawk, etc. etc. But if you were an LA suburban punk, you knew someone just like all of them. If you're of a certain age, of a certain time, of a certain place, it's a touchstone. You know exactly what it was like. Even the rednecks have their place, when the plants were closing, when and middle-class life starting fading away. The story is not great, the acting is not great, but the moment is captured, and if you were there, it takes you right back: when moshing was called slamming, and tattoos were done with a straightpin by hand, not next door to the Starbucks. If you weren't, you get a pretty good idea about what is was like to be a punk when you couldn't buy it at the mall, when it might actually get you beaten up by jocks, when a nosering might get you fired from the record store. Punk was, for a time, actually dangerous. And that made it great.