Movies
SLC PUNK! February 3rd at Schlafly Bottleworks
“In a country of lost souls rebellion comes hard. But in a religiously oppressive city, where half it’s population isn’t even of that religion, it comes like fire!”
SLC PUNK! screens Wednesday night February 3rd at Schlafly Bottleworks at 8pm
Last month at Webster University’s Strange Brew Film series, we went back in time to 1976. This month, we go back to 1985 for a look at punk rockers adrift in a city of confounding religious values.
Writer-director James Merendino’s SLC PUNK! (made in 1998) is a tour through Salt Lake City through the eyes of two punks, Stevo (Mathew Lillard), an intellectual punk rocker devoted to anarchy and Heroin Bob (Michael Goorjian) circa 1985. Stevo makes it clear early that Heroin Bob’s name is ironic for the fact that he is petrified of drugs, needles in particular. Stevo narrates the movie in the style of a documentary about punks in the Utah area, and infuses his own bizarre, high energy into the mix. These are not nice, normal kids, as we are told later. The religious prudishness of the region works on the local kids to cause more chaos, get into more fights. The entire local teen scene is dissected in a very funny high school film-strip quality lecture by Stevo. The scene is shared by Rednecks, Nazis, Mods, Rockers, and New Wavers. Under the surface, there is a thick mix of biblical and apocalyptic imagery and there’s plenty of frustration and commentary vented towards living in a city repressed by religious influence. The plot is not remarkably deep, but the emotions feel very real. SLC PUNK! is a crazy movie, very much alive and in your face!
Now you can hang with Stevo and Bob when SLC PUNK! screens Wednesday, February 3rd at Schlafly Bottleworks Restaurant and Bar in Maplewood (7260 Southwest Ave.- at Manchester – Maplewood, MO 63143) as part of their Strange Brew film series . The movie starts at 8pm and admission is $5. A yummy variety of food from Schlafly’s kitchen is available as are plenty of pints of their famous home-brewed beer.
A Facebook invite for the event can be found HERE
0 comments