Suburbia - Rebellen der Vorstadt

I love this movie even more now then I did back then. I think this should be a mandatory watch before your first purchase at Hot Topic. This movie gives me an odd sense of comfort when I watch it…something I can't find anymore. I wasn't a "TR Kid" (figuratively speaking), but I knew them all, I hung out at the "TR House"…you were always welcome there. They were my friends, my family, they were as accepting of you as you of them…someone always had your back…another thing you can't find anymore.

But enough reminiscing. I recommend this movie to anyone who was in the scene back then…but you guys have seen it. I also recommend this movie to all the new school kids who think they get it. Punk isn't what you wear, punk is who you are.

Let's set the record straight here...If you're into your average hollywood blockbuster...skip this one. (although I guess that if you're into that kind of movie, you've probably never even heard of this)

if you're like me, and grew up with punk rock, than you should check this movie out. It's a punk movie. that's all I can say. It's a good punk movie...about a bunch of punks who live in some place, and deal with things like death, parents, society, all that jazz. Just check it out, if you can find it.

Oh yeah, the acting in this movie is HORRIBLE...the bands and the shows that they go to are good....watch it now.

During my career as an "angry youth," this film, along with "Made in Britain," (Tim Roth) "Clockwork Orange," and "River's Edge," were required viewing. Penelope Spheeris did a class-A job of depicting what it was like to be young and different in a time in America when outward weirdness invited violence by jocks or other assorted meatheads. Kids who dye their hair blue and get their eyelids pierced at the mall in 2000 should watch this film and see what the consequences for "expressing one's self" were for old schoolers who think Marylin Manson is nothing more than a cheap Vaudeville rip-off artist. Think the type of stuff depicted in this film doesn't still happen? Think again - the killing of punker Brian Deneke in Texas a few years ago will shatter that notion. This film is kind of hard to find on video. You generally won't find it at Blockbuster. Try the mom & pop places.

I grew up in the early 80's hardcore punk scene in NYC and like most punks at the time had seen Penelope Spheeris' DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION (the best punk documentary ever made) and was impressed when SUBURBIA(later renamed The Wild Side) came out in a few theatres. It was, and still is, the most accurate depiction of what being a hardcore punk was like. Okay, as a film, the production was shoddy, the acting was sub par, and the story was weak. But most of the actors were local punks. . The depiction of the punks was right on the mark....the clothes, the attitude, the music, the just hanging out, etc. Unfortunately, all the new kids who just got into punk in the last decade think this movie is all wrong. Even one of the commenters on this site mistakenly complained that this movie has it all wrong and punks aren't like that. Well guess what kids? The punks in this movie not only acted like real punks, most of them were real punks. (before you were) The scene has changed over the years. This movie is accurately representative of what it was like back in the original (real) scene days during the Reagan administration.

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.