S.F.W.

I'm not trying to say that this movie is the greatest movie ever made, but I feel that it is too bad that more people do not know about S.F.W. It's a bit hard to believe the plot, but since when have movie plots played within the guidelines of normal society. Stephen Dorff gives an amazing performance as Cliff Spab. This was the first movie I ever saw him in, and seeing S.F.W. really made me think he is destined for big things. I liked how the story shifted from past to present constantly. This way, you had to wait until the end of the movie to find out what happened at the beginning. Makes it all the more intriguing. I love this movie, and most people would too if they gave it half a chance.

One of those uber nineties movies that critiqued the media and tried to be edgy. These movies look somewhat ridiculous today. (Though the Chase with Charlie Sheen at least managed to be funny). Part of the problem is that the underlying philosophy is a value free world weariness which when put on film comes across as spoiled, stupid, and self indulgent laziness. And since movies are essentially THEE dominant form of media, criticizing media's omnipresence or vanity comes across as blithely self deluded. That said the cast does the best with what they have.... which generally rounds out to putting as much emphasis on their turn to curse as possible. The plot..... if it can be called that makes very very little sense if you stop to think about for more than half a second. The central event of movie is never so much explained as much as it brought back in choppy flashbacks in order to remind the audience about why were following these characters. Better time could be spent watching a smarter film on the topic. I suggest Network.

All that being said, I can't completely hate a movie with this great of a soundtrack. The fact that almost a minute of screen time is given over to the band Gwar makes it at least retain some value. I've also noticed that music from the 50's - 70's is thrown into movies at all different times. But the only time you hear 90s music is in 90's era movies. It's almost as though Gen X in their nihilism forgot to leave any lasting mark on culture.

If not its certainly a contender. If anything you could look at the rest of his career and consider he has been searching for ways to recreate this character ever since.

Its a pretty cool movie that along with Natural Born Killers was a high profile examination of, at the time, media practices (NBK in a much more extreme way) and the creation of celebrity (regardless of talent or in spite of it).

Its sassy, funny and for sure entertaining :)

It's another movie about an Everyman who is thrust into the eye of instant pop fame by being a hostage in a nationally televised incident. First he enjoys the superficiality of the fame, then.....

In other words, it's mostly like a dozen other films that address this theme, just a little differently. This one's a little more deft at dishing out the satire and irony, despite rocking hard those product placements that films relied on in the 90s, in this case, heineken, which we see too many times to count. Since it was an new emerging director at the time, there's a lot of emphasis on attempts to produce fresh, thoughtful imagery. It's a commentary on the meaninglessness of popular reality tv, which was new then, albeit in the mid-1990s. It's hard to remember in 2021 how new we were to instant-reality-tv fame, and when, despite our addiction to it, we also still seemed to know how tasteless it was, before it became part of our ever-present background via social media. A little of EdTV meets Natural Born Killers, with a pretty and then-promising young Stephen Dorff, and a pretty and cute-as-a-button young Reese Witherspoon.

Kudos for not being afraid to show lower middle-class white Southern California the way it really was and is, without all the California/Los Angeles/Beach cliches that audiences lazily expect. Also kudos for showing the character of Spab as a real life character that he probably should be -- aimless, ambitionless, talentless, but redeemed by innate charisma, gift for gab, and good looks.

This is one of Dorff's better dramatic roles. Witherspoon, on the other hand, was not given much to work with, beyond being the "co-star." Busey, as usual for both he and his father, stole every scene he was in, which wasn't many.

A young man becomes famous due to a horrific situation. Now he has to live with the fame and the memories that it brings. There seem to be too many characters, that are developed only to be left with without discussion after their scene. Stephen Dorff does a great job, which is important, since the movie is mostly watching him walk around and deal with the stresses of his fame. The flashbacks seem to do a good job of show his traumatic stress disorder.

The sound track is great, with a special appearance by GWAR.

See it or not. As the main character says "So F**king What?"