Smithereens (1982)
10/10
Brilliant punk rock film
31 December 2003
Warning: Spoilers
(SPOILERS, kind of)

I love this movie. Susan Berman plays Wren, a trash queen who finds herself homeless and living in a van with her new admirer, Paul, as she attempts to shove her way into punk rock with Eric (Richard Hell), who isn't exactly a great guy to trust.

This is a great movie if you're just tired of nice settings, peppy protagonists, and happy endings, or if you're a lover of punk and all its forms. For those in the first group, the film is full of humor but at the expense of the sympathetic but questionable characters. It makes you feel for even those who most would classify as not deserving sympathy, like the hooker who offers Paul a blow job and a tuna sandwich in return for being allowed to sit in his van and keep warm. It ends on such a down note, too.

If you're a huge fan of punk rock, this kind of movie really shows the commercialization of it at the end of the 70s and the early 80s and the fact that it was all just a big messed up corporation by 1985. Wren sees it as her big break and a way to make loads of money and be famous, and that really misses the point of punk.

Of course, I doubt thats how the film was intended, but who cares, everybody loves self-interpretation. I'd recommend this movie to anyone with about an hour and a half of free time. or something.
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