BY FRED BLOSSER
In
Tim Hunter’s “River’s Edge†(1987), high-school student John (Daniel Roebuck)
tells his pals Matt, Layne, Clarissa, and Maggie that he’s killed another
friend, Jamie. The other kids don’t
believe him -- he makes the statement with complete lack of emotion -- until he
takes them down by the river and shows them the body. The revelation stymies the teens. As Hunter observes in his commentary track on
the new Kino Lorber Blu-ray edition of the film, “These are kids who just don’t
have the tools to make the tough choices life has thrown their way. . . . No
one has taught them morals or values.†Their parents are either dead like John’s, absent like Matt’s father, or
helpless like Matt’s divorced, stressed out mother.
Layne
(Crispin Glover) argues that there’s nothing they can do for Jamie now, and
they have to be loyal to John. He tries
to cover up the crime by rolling Jamie’s corpse into the river, and advises
John to lay low at the run-down house of their pot dealer, Feck, a crippled
ex-biker (Dennis Hopper), until he can sneak out of town. Maggie (Roxana Zal) and Clarissa (Ione Skye,
billed as Iona Skye Leitch) make a half-hearted attempt to report the murder
before changing their minds. Only Matt
(Keanu Reeves) shows any sustained remorse over Jamie’s death. He goes to the police, setting up a tense
series of events as the cops look for John, Feck and John wander back to the
river, and Layne tries to figure out who snitched. Like the events of two other seminal teen
movies, “American Graffiti†(1973) and “Dazed and Confused†(1993), the action
stretches into nighttime and into the following morning. In the meantime, Matt’s little brother Tim
(Joshua Miller), angry at Matt for hitting him after Tim callously upsets their
younger sister Kim, steals a gun from Feck’s house and determines to use it on
his brother.
Dramatically
and visually bleak, “River’s Edge†benefits from a strong script by Neal
Jimenez and uniformly fine performances, with Reeves, Glover, and Hopper
notably compelling. Reeves’ pensive,
low-key presence effectively balances Glover’s jumpy, gawky physicality.
“There’s a great method to Crispin’s madness,†Hunter observes in his
commentary track. Glover is particularly
striking in a display of grief near the end of the movie, aligning vocal
reaction and body posture perfectly. To
say more would reveal a spoiler, but you’ll know the scene when you see
it. Skye and Zal have one of the best
moments in the film, providing some subtle macabre humor as Clarissa and Maggie
debate reporting the murder and go to a pay phone:
“Who
do I call anyway?â€
“The
police, I guess.â€
“Well,
am I supposed to know the number?â€
“Call
the operator.â€
Clarissa
holds the receiver indecisively. “You do
it.â€
“I
don’t know what to say. Here, I’ll dial,
you talk.â€
In
his commentary track, Hunter compliments Danyi Deats, who plays the murdered
Jamie. Aside from a silent flashback to
the moment of Jamie’s murder, Deats’ scenes call for her to lie still on the
open ground as the dead girl’s corpse, vulnerably and frontally nude. “She had a tough time,†Hunter says
sympathetically, commenting that Deats took the pivotal but static role to get
her SAG card. Jamie’s motionless, waxen
corpse mirrors two other objects in the film: Feck’s inflatable sex doll, which
he calls “Ally,†and little Kim’s doll which Tim vindictively throws off a
bridge into the river in the film’s opening shot. Tim’s action begins the string of events that
lead him to stalk Matt with a gun. It’s
telling that Kim shows more feeling for her lost doll and Feck for his sex toy
than Jamie’s friends display for her.
The 1980s details of
“River’s Edge†look a little quaint today, when the 24/7 media give parents new
reasons to worry about their kids with headlines and top-of-the-hour stories
about teens sexting and swapping explicit selfies by smartphone. Nevertheless, the movie’s story and characters
remain unsettling. The Kino Lorber
Blu-ray’s hi-def, 1920x1080p image is serviceable. Besides the director’s commentary track, the
disc includes a theatrical trailer.
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FRED BLOSSER IS THE AUTHOR OF "SAVAGE SCROLLS: VOLUME ONE: SCHOLARSHIP FROM THE HYBORIAN AGE". CLICK HERE TO ORDER ON AMAZON