River's Edge

A high school slacker (Daniel Roebuck) kills his girlfriend and shows off her dead body to his friends. However, the friends' reaction is almost as ambiguous and perplexing as the crime itself. Daniel Roebuck shines here, and it is a mystery to me how he has remained relatively unknown outside of film buff circles. Kenau Reeves has gone on to big things, Crispin Glover (who is not great here) is well-known. Even Ione Skye had a few years of success. Of course, Dennis Hopper is great, but when is he not? I feel like this is a film before its time. The nihilism and moral ambiguity is very much 1990s in its tone, and i think this would have been a big hit if released a few years later. I'm not sure how well it did in 1986, but despite the great performances, dark plot and famous cast, I don't think this is a movie much talked about today (2016).

I saw this a long time ago and had neutral-to-positive feelings about it. When I saw it on the shelf at the videostore I rented it again. I made it 53 minutes and 57 seconds into it, before losing interest and growing tired of the heinous acting. To say the least it's not aging well. Quality-wise, it's a heavy-handed TV movie of the week with a grade-Z horror movie score. The antagonist is Keanu Reeves little brother, who appears to be the world's first seven year old transsexual. A supposedly dead body breathes and is unaffected by decay or rigor mortis. One actor's portrayal of "bad cop" is anus-clenching-ly bad. Crispin Glover can be singled out for another atrocious, overacted performance. I wonder when the mothership is due back for him.

"River's Edge" has many such situations. The movie is an overall look at the disaffected youth of the 1980s. The body offers a window into the dismal lives of this group of friends. Don't get me wrong, there are healthy relationships, but throughout the movie I kept thinking "Something ugly is gonna happen." One of the most notable things about the movie is an early appearance of Keanu Reeves. His character goes through some intense things. It's one of those movies that truly marks its era. Definitely see it. Tim Hunter focused again on alienation with the 1993 drama "The Saint of Fort Washington", about some homeless men in New York. PS: Joshua John Miller (Tim) is the son of Jason Miller (Father Karras in "The Exorcist").