SLC Punk! (1998)

2 months ago

What Do I Get?

by Maria Diaz

I went out with a guy last year who was very blatant in how frequently he would judge me. After he finally revealed his Facebook account like it was some kind of fucking new Apple product that needed to be shrouded in secrecy and finally just fucking friended me like a normal person, he proceeded to judge me on every single aspect of my profile, especially on my favorite films. One of those was SLC Punk. He said, “I have to deduct points.” I didn’t tell him his points were six digits and negative. And that little offhand comment about one of my most cherished movies, well that made the point deficit even larger. It was over.

That anecdote is only significant because that’s how most people react to the mention of this movie. I remember when in came out, it was at the tail-end of the “alternative” rock craze, where everyone (including me) was pretending to be punk. Do you realize the Mighty Mighty Bosstones played at the MTV Music Awards? That is how insane it got. By the time this movie was released, we were faux-punked out. Take it away! I need to get ready for some boy bands and Ricky Martin to arrive.

And so, off it went. It went deep into the bowels of the .99 cent rack, to only be remembered by the 10 people who actually saw the film. It came into my life about 4 years ago, when I was profoundly confused about what to do with life. My ex-boyfriend, a few years older than me, and much more secure in what he would end up doing with himself, made me watch it. It’s not what you think it is, he said. This is what I repeat to all the naysayers now. It’s not what you think it is.

The movie is ostensibly about the late 80’s punk scene in Salt Lake City, and while much of the movie focuses on the “scene” and its characters, the real heart of this movie is what it takes to grow the fuck up. It’s basically the extended monologue of Stevo, played by Matthew Lillard, and his conflict: to go to law school or stay in the scene, in arrested development with his friends, living in shitholes and spending their time fighting rednecks, doing drugs and going to parties.

Little by little, Steve realizes that he doesn’t want to wake up and have turned into, to use another 90s joke, the “old guy at the club.” Is it a spoiler if I tell you that he decides to go to law school? He realizes that inside his anarchy, there was just another system. What exactly was he railing against? As he decides, “Final Summation: None.”

The point is: everyone makes a choice eventually, whether you know it or not. You stay in the same job, you stay in the same relationship, you stay in the same place until you change or something barges in and changes it for you. And years later, maybe you don’t recognize that person anymore. But that’s okay. Who wants to be the same from when they were 16? As Steve says: “You see, the guy I am now is not the guy I was then. If the guy I was then met the guy I am now he’d beat the shit out of me. Those are the facts.”

— Maria Diaz is a professional celebrity blogger. Her personal blog is here.