SubUrbia (1983/Shout! Factory DVD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C+     Film: C+

 

 

I am not the biggest fan of Penelope Spheeris and she is best at documentary work, but when she tries narratives, it is always a mess and the that has led to strange commercial works like the missed opportunities in The Beverly Hillbillies, the inexplicable hit Wayne’s World and practical sexualizing of children in her failed revival of The Little Rascals.  SubUrbia (1983) is her breakthrough narrative work now issued by Shout! Factory from their Roger Corman holdings.

 

The film wants to be a portrait of the Punk Rock scene in Los Angeles and surrounding areas at the time, though that scene was soon to enter its post-Pink phase.  Despite some interesting scenes, future Red Hot Chili Pepper Flea in his acting debut and a few truly funny moments (some unintentionally so), the film was never totally authentic and for a film she claims she made from incidents on the recent news, it is very predictable and formulaic.

 

It is not unlike the Australian Punk film Dogs In Space (reviewed on Blu-ray and DVD elsewhere on this site) with the late INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence, which also portrayed the Punk scene, though made a few years later, was set in the late 1970s.  You have people acting obnoxious, ‘Punk’ and going to concerts.  Some are even part of a bad, but neither film gives us insight into the scene and eventually becomes a relic of that scene.

 

By 1983, the anti-conformity bit seemed failed and soon was to be profoundly so as Punk failed to stop the full goals of Neo-Conservatism (it ran out of energy by then) and soon, the Rock genre itself would find itself in slow decline.  SubUrbia does not even believe Punk has the energy it once did as reflected by the way the film functions, so it inadvertently states that the adult/child dichotomy has gone back to the 1950s; perfect for Reagan’s America.  Soon, that would collapse and the 1980s would seem nostalgic as that split was optimistic and the violence would be far more widespread.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image was shot in 35mm film by Director of Photography Tom Suhrstedt (Mystic Pizza, Idiocracy) did what remains some of his most interesting, distinctive work here and it is one of the things that makes the film a cult favorite today.  The color is not bad and the print is decent shape, but the low budget and age of the film shows.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono also shows its age down to the interesting music score by Alex Gibson, but it has been cleaned up about as well as can be expected, so the combination offers a slightly better presentation than expected.

 

Extras include Trailers, Stills and two feature length audio commentary tracks.  One is an older track Spheeris recorded years ago and does not always talk as she should, while a new one with Spheeris, Producer Bert Dragin and Actress Jennifer Clay is new to this release.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo