River's Edge
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Movie Reviews of River's Edge
Movie Review: True Story, right from my old stomping grounds
Summary: 4 Stars
this movie is riveting, to say the least.But it became even more so when I realized I was living in the same town that it happened in, and not only that, that I was about a mile away from where the actual murder took place. of course, the atrocity occured way before I was even a concious being, thank god.
Keep the memory of the girl who lost her life alive,
and see this movie.
Movie Review: Still Gripping
Summary: 4 Stars
Even though it has been nearly 20 years since I've seen this movie, it's still gripping. I realize all these years later that it is kind of a teen movie, but only because it involves high school students. Crazy man Dennis Hopper puts in another great performance. This movie asks the question, "What would you do?".Movie Review: two poorly acted roles - the rest sold the movie!
Summary: 4 Stars
Although I found the acting of Crispin Glover (Layne) and Joshua Miller (Tim )to be too over-the-top to be 'real', the rest of the cast SOLD their roles and made this a surprisingly well-done flick. Disturbing....Movie Review: Chilling tale of kids on the edge
Summary: 3 Stars
Samson "John" (Daniel Roebuck) strangles his girlfriend Jamie because she was "talkin' ####." Then, he shows all his friends the nude body.
"A bunch of us are going to check it out," one girl tells another. "It's probably some joke."
But, the kids are going to visit the body by truck loads. They literally convince one of them to cut work to ferry a bunch of kids out to the riverside so everyone can see.
"Nobody has to find out." Layne (Glover) the self appointed ringleader of the young people, tells the group. "There are a lot of people here, we bury her so she doesn't have to be found." Their ersatz leader is doing his best to keep the gang together, to get John out of town when the police start searching for him because Jamie's dead and they can only help John.
One of the boys' big adult role models is Feck (Dennis Hopper) an ex-biker who admits to having killed a girl he loved with his gun. Feck provides the kids drugs and plays a key role in John's escape attempt.
It seems, the only kid concerned is one girl, Clarissa (Ione Skye) who is too afraid to call the police because John might hurt her next. And still her reaction is muted. "I couldn't cry for her," she confesses. "I could cry for that guy in "Brian's Song", but I couldn't cry for her..."
All this is juxtaposed with a little girl's grief over her lost toy. The toy gets a burial and a grave marker. The girl's death is hidden.
"I don't know how I felt," Matt (Keanu Reeves) the kid who eventually told the cops, said when asked about seeing the body of the girl. This is pretty much a reflection of the reactions of most of the kids who've witnessed the girl's body.
Finally, near the end when John's situation gets desperate, he tells precisely why he killed Jamie. The situation goes from bad to worse as the kids are frenzied by John's act run rampant around the town, committing robbery, assault, etc.
"The River's Edge" literally had me on the edge of my seat. There are enough holes and inconsistencies in the plot and bad acting by some of the cast to have me shaking my head, I doubt I will forget the film any time soon.
While this film is a work of fiction, it is based on the true story of the killing of Marcy Conrad by her boyfriend in 1981.
Rebecca Kyle, December 2008
Movie Review: Pioneering teen film
Summary: 3 Stars
When high-school student Samson 'John' Tollet strangles his girlfriend, Jamie, on the riverbank - "because she was shooting her mouth off" - he freely admits the crime to his friends and takes them to see the body. Their reactions vary. The group's leader, Layne (Crispin Glover), argues that Jamie's dead so there's nothing they can do for her, but they can save John if they dispose of the body and all keep their mouths shut. However, Matt (Keanu Reeves), may be the only member of the group with enough empathy and courage to do the right thing... Although fictional, "River's Edge" was inspired by the true case of Marcy Conrad who was murdered by her boyfriend Anthony Jacques Broussard in Milpitas, California, in 1981. It isn't a great film, but it's interesting because it was one of the first to explore the milieu of what would soon become known as Generation X. Strung out on dope and failed by their absent or useless parents, these kids are too jaded to feel anything, even in the face of death. Through one of their teachers, Mr Burkewaite, Neal Jiminez's screenplay points to a contrast between these Gen X slackers and their politically-engaged counterparts in the 1960s. Also, their aging dope dealer, Feck (Dennis Hopper), killed his girlfriend, too, but under pointedly different circumstances: unlike John, he loved his girlfriend and killing her wasn't simply a way of feeling more "alive". But such times have passed. For these kids, the only apparent choice is between copping out and conservatism. It's a simplistic position, and the screenplay isn't as nuanced as it might have been. Still, it's a reasonably engaging film. How you respond to it may well be a function of how much you can tolerate Crispin Glover. Admittedly, his unique performance style suits the slightly crazed Layne but, as always with Glover, it borders on unintentionally funny and this tends to dilute the impact of what's going on. By contrast, Keanu Reeves enthusiasts will be pleased to find an early film in which he actually acts. Similar ground is covered by Larry Clark in "Bully" (2001), another true-story adaptation, where the kids are more complicit in the crime.