SLC Punk

1999 Comedy Drama

What's it like being the only punk rockers in the biggest Mormon community in the world? Stevo (Matthew Lillard) and Heroin Bob (Michael Goorjian) provide the answer to this and other questions in SLC Punk. Stevo and Bob (whose name is actually an ironic reference to his fear of needles) are two friends fresh out of college who sport mohawks and blue hair, listen to hardcore and try to live up to their own anarchist ideals while figuring out what to do with their lives. Which wouldn't make them unusual in New York or Los Angeles, but they're fish out of water in Salt Lake City, Utah, where they drink beer, chase women and pick fights with "rednecks" along side a mixed bag of metalheads, hippies, hicks and posers who are fellow outcasts in the most clean-cut community in America. In the midst of all this, Stevo's dad hopes his son will follow in his footsteps and study law at Harvard; while Stevo surprisingly has the grades, he's not sure if he wants to go. Featuring a soundtrack of mid-80's punk from The Ramones, Minor Threat, The Dead Kennedys and others, SLC Punk was chosen as the opening-night feature at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival. more..

Director: James Merendino

Starring: Matthew Lillard, Christopher McDonald, Devon Sawa,Michael A. Goorjian, Jennifer Lien

Reviews

  • performance dominates the film, and he does a subtle, tricky job of being both an obnoxious punk and a kid in search of his direction in life. He's very good.

    Roger Ebert - The Chicago Sun-Times

    19 January 2013

  • For a while, angry young Stevo (Lillard) turns his quest for total anarchy into a grungy, giddy, randomly violent rave. Then reality creeps up and, well, it bites.

    - Entertainment Weekly

    19 January 2013

  • Lillard, who played the squirrelly Stuart in "Scream," brings a mischievous sense of humor and an easygoing charm to his potentially unsympathetic character.

    Rita Kempley - The Washington Post

    19 January 2013

  • Likable for its outlandishness, less so when it shows a self-important streak.

    Elvis Mitchell - The New York Times

    19 January 2013

  • So forced and contrived in delivery that it's tedious. That's not good when the intention is to be audacious.

    Peter Stack - The San Francisco Chronicle

    19 January 2013

Awards

  • Best Screenplay

    Independent Spirit Awards (2000)

     
  • Matthew Lillard

    Mar del Plata Film Festival (1999)