River’s Edge (T. Hunter, 1986)

River’s Edge (Tim Hunter, 1986)

Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man, lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare.  –Proverbs 22:24-25

Not quite the troubled teenage life film I thought it was going to be. Exaggerated in both the presentation of youth’s passive attitude and in the performances of the actor’s involved, it’s far from ‘real’ and instead lives in the realm of realistic surrealism. (Yes I just made up that oxymoronic term!) It really is bizarre watching the mostly passive reaction to learning one of their friends has killed another. There is definite internal moral wrestling occurring in almost every character, but it really does not detract from the important things like when they are getting their next hit, or who they are going to make out with next. Hunter’s odd and over-the-top depiction of troubled youth is neither completely successful nor a failure; I just couldn’t quite break its outer shell.  6.75/10