River's Edge

A teen inexplicably kills his girlfriend and provokes strange reactions from his peers after showing them the body.

River’s Edge is almost the anti-teen movie. There are no happy endings or neat plot resolutions. Instead we get an honest look at dysfunctional families and disenchanted youth. While this does make for great social commentary, it’s less than satisfying as a movie.

The performance are all first rate. Crispen Glover’s does tend veer a little over-the-top, but you buy it. Dennis Hopper may have been filming River’s Edge concurrently with Blue Velvet, as he gives almost identical performances, but you buy him too.

Director Tim Hunter does a great job creating a real-world atmosphere, and manages to keep the film from dating itself. The lack of cell phones is about the only way you’d know it wasn’t set in present day.

River’s Edge’s only real problems are it’s length (it’s about 15-20 minutes too long), and it’s lack of story. The movie seems more intent on exploring it’s character’s reactions, rather than trying to unify those reactions with a central thread or theme. This isn’t to say there isn’t a central theme, only that it’s often sacrificed for the sake of exploration, resulting in a looser narrative.