horrorflicklover There isn't one single character in this movie that I didn't want to kick in the face. All I saw for the duration of this film were a bunch of self-absorbed a-holes walking around and whining. We're meant to feel that this is somehow a coming-of-age for these youths who feel completely disaffected with reality crashing down on them. However, not one lesson was actually learned. No one, at any point in this movie, could manage to look outside of themselves and acknowledge anything outside of their microcosm of existence.Not every film needs a stated lesson, that's true. "Kids" got away with not having one for a couple of reasons: 1) The lesson was implied. We actually KNEW what was going on, and how to feel about it. This movie didn't for one minute arise any emotion in me other than "Good God, these kids are all dip****s". As we drifted from one confusing scene to the next, I tried to figure out what they were building up to. Ultimately, it was simply that every character in this movie deserved to be hated. It's the only thing I actually learned.2) "Kids" actually had enough real drama to speak to it's audience without needing a well-defined lesson. A scene which is powerful enough will speak for itself. We know that it's simply a representation of art imitating life, and we come away understanding the realistic horrors that it exemplifies. All that SubUrbia had was a bunch of laughable melodrama. A bunch of arrogant, disrespectful little dillweeds who despite their whining and wishing for change, never come away with the fact that THEY are the biggest reason that they're being held back.It's not that I "don't get it". It's not that I didn't grow up in the 1990's (I did). It's not that I don't understand the slacker/Generation X cultures of the era (It was slightly before my time, but I still understand it). It's not that I didn't feel just as confused, angry, and depressed as any one of these kids at that point in my life (or for that matter, before and after). I understand (on some level) how these characters felt and acted. However, when I was expecting a "coming-of-age" film to actually come of age, this one didn't. It went nowhere. It showed no development in character. Most characters are just as one-dimensional at the end of the film as they were from the start. Sure, they can identify their flaws. However, they can't seem to come to with them. All the while, I'm expecting for these kids to learn something. Instead, I'm shown that they're devoid of decency, and seem perfectly content with being so.The only emotion I could feel was anger. Anger that I spent two hours watching a bunch of snots with no regard for anyone but themselves act out some lousy melodrama. The fact that afterwards, it's not shown or implied that they will suffer any consequences for their stupidity or selfishness. At least in "Kids", it was understood that many of the characters would have dire consequences for their actions. "Thirteen" as well. Provided, both movies were more dark than this one. But SubUrbia certainly tried to be heavy. It failed. Sure, some of the characters (despite the fact that virtually all of them are despicable, shallow, self-centered a-holes) are relatable to anyone who was ever a teenager. But that doesn't make them good, nor does it make the film in which they appear in good either. I'm not arguing against this film like some crusty old man who forgot what it was like to be young. I hate this film when I was 17, and I hate it now. SubUrbia seemed to think that relatable characters would be enough to carry the rest of the film. It wasn't.It's like when I watched "Clerks" for the first time. Throughout the movie, I tended to sympathize with one of the seemingly luckless main characters. But then when another character gets sick of his b.s, he laid it all out to him as to why he was being a yutz. Then I thought to myself about that exchange just as much as the characters on-screen were meant to. See, that's why Clerks worked, despite the fact that the entire thing was mostly comedic melodrama. Because the film moved from one emotional platform to the next in the context of growing up and understanding life. That is, it CAME OF AGE.I hated SubUrbia. It's is obnoxious and shallow. It may have attempted to be obnoxious, but I know full and well it wanted to be anything but shallow. I kept expecting either a lesson to be learned, a character to have sympathy for, or a powerful enough segment that spoke to me above the level of simple young adult disaffection. This film accomplished none of that. It was melodrama without any real resolution. There was no one to feel sorry for. Nothing to think about. It's a coming-of-age film that failed to do so.For more on absolutely terrible films that attempt to show despicably shallow, arrogant, and ignorant disaffected youth in a protagonistic light, see "Reality Bites". Nostalgia Chick did an excellent review of Reality Bites, which in fact inspired me to write this review. It helped me truly pinpoint WHAT it was about SubUrbia that I really hated for all of these years, because she hated RB for the same reasons.
Lee Eisenberg Ah, the suburbs. That wasteland to which white people move so that they don't have to live around ethnic folks. It's hard to tell whether movies usually idealize the suburbs or trash them, but "SubUrbia" certainly does the latter. Portraying several people's empty lives in an unidentified suburban land - although I assumed that it was LA; it was plastic enough to be LA - they pull no punches here. One of the aspects is that you can see how they treat the one ethnic person (Ajay Naidu). But what can you say about the suburbs (except maybe that they're a hell on Earth)? Anyway, Richard Linklater was showing some of the skills that he later brought to "Waking Life". This is a movie worth seeing. Also starring Nicky Katt, Parker Posey, Giovanni Ribisi and Steve Zahn.
Monster-17 If "Dazed and Confused" was the 'high' then "SubUrbia" if most definitely the 'down'. It's basically the flipside of "Dazed and Confused", where youthful hedonism has been replaced by 20-something boredom. It's a post-college movie where characters have found themselves unfulfilled in every capacity. It's a pack mentality, where you hang-out with the same gang from high school only to find you've out grown each other and resent one another's ambitions because you know you yourself lack the impetus to do anything constructive with your life. These characters are losers in every respect, clinging on to their high school way of life, reluctant to take initiative and move on. They constantly put each other down, bicker and make efforts to humiliate, yet the depressing thing is they have no one but each other. This is a quality film that remains one of Linklater's most under appreciated efforts. No one has the ability to present young characters with the insight, skill and craft Lanklater possesses. He is truly one of America's finest filmmakers working today and "SubUrbia" is a great film that still holds up.
River4Rain A story so simple, yet very touching, excellent performances, and a strong soundtrack makes this a movie you can't get out of your mind. Some people regard this as a comedy, and maybe in the beginning you may regard some of the lines as funny, but actually this is a very tragic tale of youth and the lives they live.
