SLC Punk

The film is set in 1985 in Salt Lake City, at the centre of the Mormon Church and in the middle of the Reagan era. That is the whole point: being a punk here is not a style but standing inside something geographically impossible. Stevo has graduated with honours and has blue hair. His friend, despite being called Heroin Bob, is terrified of drugs; the two move between shows, stolen cars and continuous partying. The real subject is Stevo's contradiction with his own ideology: his father is a lawyer and wants him to study law at Harvard. James Merendino wrote and directed. It is not strictly autobiographical; Merendino has said most of the characters came from people he knew. It premiered at Sundance on 22 January 1999 and went wide on 16 April 1999. Matthew Lillard plays Stevo and Michael A. Goorjian plays Heroin Bob. Who it is for: viewers who like subculture narratives and films that talk straight to camera and narrate themselves. Who it is not for: anyone who takes punk seriously. The film mocks the movement constantly, and its ending can be read as a straightforward capitulation.