Conference bookie::movies

631.0. "Rivers Edge" by 65320::RIVERS (Even better than the real thing) Tue Sep 06 1994 11:33

    "River's Edge" is a film that came out (geez) 8 or so years ago.  I
    remember it got fairly favorable reviews when it appeared in theaters. 
    A friend of mine is on a Keanu Reeves kick so we had a mini-Keanu-Fest
    at her house this weekend. 
    
    Mr. Reeves is featured in this as one of a group of teenagers who find
    out one of their friends has killed another friend.  This shaggy little
    band of pre-grunge grungers is "lead" by Lane, a character played by
    Crispin Glover (who I remember best as a very straaaaange guest on
    David Letterman).  I think Crispin is naturally strange, but that's all
    beside the point here.  Sorta.
    
    This movie was based on a true story.  Samson (really, that's his
    name, even though his 'nickname' is John), a large hulking sort, has 
    killed a girl, Jaime.  He tells his friends, who aren't really so much 
    friends as this conglomerate of losers that hang around together and, as 
    they say very often, "get stoned".  There doesn't seem much else of import
    in their life other than getting stoned.  You get the feeling that this 
    town they live in (some Northern California burg) is a hot bed of 
    dysfunctional familes, even though we really only see one family.  It's
    enough.
    
    Oh, but I wander.
    
    Anyway, Samson admits to his friends that he killed Jaime and left her
    down by the river.  He is pooh poohed, at least until he takes the gang
    down to the body.  Jaime's dead body is stared and an poked with a
    stick and it slowly sinks in to the gang that yup, she's dead and yup,
    John killed her.
    
    The rest of the movie concerns the reaction--or lack of--by the kids to
    this death.  Lane, who seems to take any situation, no matter how small
    and blow it up into something it isn't, sees a grand moment to protect
    John from the long arm of the law.  The other kids wonder if they
    should, like, do anything other than what Lane tells them to do.  Like,
    call the cops.  Or something.  Anything.  And most of them spend the
    entire movie mulling over their options.
    
    This is one of those movies that critics really like but most of the
    world passes by.  It's certainly not a BAD movie and there are some
    nice performances in here.  Dennis Hopper is an ex-biker in seclusion,
    still fearing retribution by a murder he committed twenty years ago. 
    He answers the door with a revolver and a "Check's in the mail!". 
    (would that I could fend off my bill collectors that way :)  He
    supplies the kids with dope and a few bits of advise, and dances with
    Ellie, his inflatable doll.  Hopper is kinda, well, Dennis Hopper, but
    he isn't too over the edge here and turns in a nice job.  Keanu Reeves
    is more animated than usual as Matt, the kid who's trying to hold his
    family together (Matt's family is our single visit to a home with
    adults in it that we see, and it's not pretty) and the nicest guy in
    the entire movie.  The kid who played John, (Daniel Roebuck I think)
    turns in what I thought was the performance, sullen and quiet and
    frighteningly apathetic about what he'd done.  
    
    There are some not so great performances.  Crispin Glover, who is
    supposed to be charismatic and the ringleader, just came off as weird. 
    I know actors aren't their characters, but I tell ya, after Letterman
    and now this, I think Mr. Glover is what we here like to call
    "eccentric".  I seem to remember him getting favorable remarks from
    critics, but I thought he came off like a bad parody of a transvestite,
    which his character wasn't.  Which kinda made it even more goofy. The 
    little kid who plays Matt's revenge minded little brother reminded me of 
    those "kid is the son of Satan" horror movies popular back around the 
    time of "The Omen".  I was kinda waiting for him to burst into flame or 
    spin his head around.  
    
    "River's Edge" is kinda slow moving and certainly not for everyone. 
    There's liberal use of the f-word, some very tame sex scenes, little
    graphic violence and several shots of a dead body (I pity the actress
    who had to lie there, looking quite dead, buck naked, on what looked
    like very cold, wet grass).  :)  I kinda liked it as a little
    commentary on how one's priorities can get all screwed up, but it
    certainly wasn't a happy little movie at all.  It's not something I'd
    watch often, unless it just happened to be on and I had nothing else to
    do.  I was pretty impressed with Dennis Hopper and Daniel Roebuck
    though. 
    
    **.75 out ****
    
    kim

    Well...
    
    I saw Rivers' Edge in the theatre when it came out and have seen it
    once or twice on cable since.  I pretty much agree with you except that
    I am a huge Crispin Glover fan.  He's just so wild you gotta love him
    (Although he was pretty normal in Back to the Future).
    
    Around the time the movie came out I took part in several debates with
    several different groups of people about the "reality" of this story. 
    Most people found it hard to believe that the other teens in the film
    didn't tell police, parents, etc.  Well, I grew up in a tiny town just
    like that one with friends just like Reeves, Skye and, yes, Glover. 
    Our hang out was the dried out river bottom in the old Mesa and had one
    of us done something as horrible as that, at that time in our lives we
    would have thought that keeping our mouths shut was "romantic" and
    "dramatic" and would have carried the secret to our graves.  Thank God
    I never had to test that theory.
    
    MJ
                                                           

    
    This is on my top ten of favorite movies of all time. Came out around
    the same time as "Stand By Me" which, IMO is kinda about the same
    thing but with a little more fluff.
    
    	Glover: Feck, this is John - He has to hide out here for a while 
    		he just killed his Girlfriend.
    	Feck:	Did you love her?
    	John:	She was o.k.
    
    Feck, Hopper's Character, proves in the end to have a lot more morality 
    then we expected he would.
    
    Clorissa, played by Ione Skye was called Ione Skye Leach at the time
    this movie was made.  By the time she played Dianne Court in "Say
    Anything", she had dropped the "Leach".  I often wonder how her dad
    "Donovan Leach" (Hurdy Gurdy Man) felt about that.
    
    Steve

    >  Around the time the movie came out I took part in several debates with
    > several different groups of people about the "reality" of this story. 
    > Most people found it hard to believe that the other teens in the film
    > didn't tell police, parents, etc.
    
    About seven or eight years ago, there was a very similar story reported
    in the news. A 14-year-old boy in California had killed his sister and
    hidden her in a ditch in the woods. Far from regretting it, he bragged
    about it to his friends, and showed the body to them. They also
    thought it was pretty nifty; one of them threw a rock on her to see if
    she was really dead. One of them did eventually report it to police,
    but I think most of the kids were ready to just go along with the joke.
    
    Given the time frame, I'd be interested to know whether the movie was
    inspired by the incident, or if it was just coincidence.
    
    			Jim B.

    It was based off of a real incident.  The town of Milpitas keeps popped
    to mind when I hear about this movie (Milpitas is a city in the San
    Francisco Bay Area, not too far from San Jose).  Maybe the incident
    took place there (clearly, the film was not filmed in Milpitas, it was
    much too green and wet for that part of the state).
    
    
    kim

    Repulsive movie. The teenagers are all creepy and mindless. Dennis
    Hopper plays another weirdo role to the max. Makes you appreciate all
    the normal people you know. I kept thinking if that had been my
    daughter they murdered, how much vengance I would have wreaked on the
    lot of them. That high school must have had more than its fair share of
    scumbags. Sure felt sorry for the rest of the kids in that school with
    this many creepos running around.
    

  I remember seeing this movie a few years ago on cable. I guess I didn't have
the strong feeling either for or against this movie that others had.

  It seemed well acted but dragged a bit. Dennis Hopper did a fine job as a
wacko but it was something of a poor man's version of the character he played
in Blue Velvet. He's done better in Nike Ads.

  Worth seeing on TV but I'm glad I didn't pay $8.00 to see it in the theater.

  ** out of 5,
  George

re: .5

>>> Disgusting movie.... Repulsive movie... creepy and mindless... vengance...
>>> scumbags.... creepos...

A cinimatic production (a.k.a. Movie) can be judged by the emotional response
of the viewer. The distaste you feel for the characters is a testimony to the 
film.  Negitively or not, it affected you.  That was what was so great about
it. 

I think about it for days after I see it.  

The fact is... these creepy, mindless kids exist.

yow,

Steve