S.F.W. (1995)

A Disappointing Continuation

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

Blistering performances.

Well what can I say about this? It came out when I was still a teenager, and it had all of the elements of the 1990s that kids were getting into because, according to the majority of media outlets, we were the jaded generation that believed in nothing other than grunge music, being pains in the butt for adults, and rocking out without a care in the world. Every generation does this, but this was our version of "Steal This Movie." And while most of that attitude was true and around at the time, you can see how much the creative lines were blurred when you had movies like "S.F.W." coming out and trying to cash in on these trends. Wayne's World, Tank Girl, Beavis & Butthead, Slacker, Clerks, Mall Rats, Natural Born Killers, Drugstore Cowboy, Pump Up the Volume, Bill & Ted's, Singles, Reality Bites, Empire Records...hell, even Ferris Bueller's Day Off had its similar message in the 80s. So what's one more, right?First off, the movie is ridiculous. The premise (without spoiling it) is thin, unbelievable, and needed a lot of retooling (if the whole screenplay was adapted from a book, and if it was, the book's probably not much better). Even more than "Singles," this movie tries to cram grunge music into every nook and cranny to remind you how street-level Reese Witherspoon and Stephen Dorff's character are (along with their friends), but then they make a weird, Disney-moment every time Dorff's character ("Cliff Spab"...AKA the worst name to be repeated EVER) reminisces about their friend. I'm not going to say what happens, but every time Spab contemplates what went down with his friend, music bussed in from the movie "E.T." gets played, and we're supposed to feel bad for some reason (why, i don't know because Spab wasn't all that close with him in the beginning of the movie or in other scenes either).Secondly, the objective seemed to make sense, that the media and relatives try and cash in from those around them who become famous...but the message easily becomes turned around on the movie itself for cashing in on the attitudes of cynical youths who are biting the bait that this movie produces.Third, it should stay a cult movie and nothing more. It's not Dazed & Confused, and it's not Natural Born Killers. The subjects of this movie became lucky in the film to be celebrities due to a minor news story that realistically would never had happened in real life, and if they would have, people wouldn't give the story more than a week of exposure after-the-fact. I liked the addition of the music to commemorate the times, but as a movie, there isn't a lot of groundbreaking material to lump it into a deeper category of film or re-release it on Criterion or anything.If you're a fan of grunge music or slacker-movies that let you kill 1.5 hours while you're downing a 6-pack, this might be a fun watch once, but I don't think I'll be owning this.

The only reason I checked out this movie is because in the credits it states that China Kantner is in this movie. She might have been, but I didn't see her. I loved her in a movie called "The Stoned Age" (1994), so I wanted to see her again. She might have had a very very small role, but it wasn't worth my time watching this movie for a blink. I have never been a Reese Witherspoon fan, but I love Renee Zellweger and I rented "Dazed and Confused" (1993) just to see her, but just like this movie, I was disappointed to find out that she is only in it for a moment. I don't think they should list actors in the credits unless they have prominent roles, and if they do, then maybe the word "bit part" should be next to their names.

This is a good movie and very representative of 1994. The soundtrack is a slice of the music of the time with Soundgardem, L7, Hole and others and its deep cynical undercurrent is straight out of the Kurt Cobain handbook.Stephen Dorff and Reese Witherspoon are both young and as good as I've seen them in any movie, though Dorff has the majority of the screen time, and does a perfectly solid job as a cynical, disaffected youth disgusted with his instant fame derived in a hostage crisis. There is a LOT of profanity in this movie re the title So F***in What. I wasn't crazy about Doirff in Blade, but he does a riveting job in this film, pulling off a crass, cynical character who is a natural class clown, but wants to be deeper and is.Again, I find it interesting that a movie that has a bunch of uncomfortable commentary about America and its ruthless media and weapons-saturated culture gets panned on these media boards. This is not an effects movie, and you may not find it 'exciting' enough if your thing is CGI, but its a totally competent and ambitious indie/starter film (I don't know where in the directors career this movie came out).This is the kind of movie a historian would go for, it was made by someone with ideas in the context of their time, and not some overwrought, over-positioned Hollywood puff piece. The movie gets a lot clearer at the end, revealing details of events you wonder about from the beginning. This film also has a lot to say about the horror of gun violence and being witness to it. People who attack SFW have an agenda. This is a great film.

S.F.W.Aspect ratio: 1.85:1Sound format: Dolby StereoA feckless young man (Stephen Dorff) becomes an unlikely celebrity after surviving a televised hostage ordeal in his local convenience store, but he's unable to reconcile the tragedy of the siege - in which his best friend (Jack Noseworthy) was killed - with the exaggerated version of events peddled by a ratings-hungry media.Jefery Levy's cult-movie wannabe pairs Dorff alongside relative newcomer Reese Witherspoon in a vicious assault on the contemporary media, depicted here as a soulless entity concerned solely with ratings and money (yeah, so what else is new?). The message is obvious, but Levy and co-scriptwriter Danny Rubin (GROUNDHOG DAY) revel in their own daring: Dorff and Witherspoon play ordinary characters who emerge from an extraordinary situation and are forced to confront their unexpected (and unwanted) fame. However, Levy's unflattering view of modern journalism (symbolized by John Roarke as a variety of thinly-disguised real-life TV celebrities who feed off other people's misery, and Gary Coleman in a fleeting, self-deprecating cameo) seems a little distorted and misleading, though clearly filtered through the lead character's personal viewpoint. Dorff himself is terrific, as always, playing a charismatic and foul-mouthed Everyman, scornful of the manner in which his personal misfortune has been manipulated to feed the expectations of a mindless, sensation-hungry audience. But there are moments when the screeching soundtrack fades abruptly to silence and Levy concentrates on Dorff's haunted face as he recalls key events - good and bad - from the siege, and the friendships that were forged and destroyed under extreme duress. The movie doesn't say anything new, but the execution is invigorating.Look out for an early appearance by Tobey Maguire as a young stoner who thinks he's died and gone to heaven when he and his buddy (Dana Allan Young) encounter their idol Dorff on an empty street (a truly hilarious sequence). Steve Antin cameos as a news reporter named after his character in the equally odd INSIDE MONKEY ZETTERLAND, helmed by Levy in 1992.