My new favorite movie

[kleenexwoman]

I've just finished watching "River's Edge." I had a choice between working on my NaNoWriMo novel or watching it. It was technically due back at Video Land today, so I didn't have that much of a choice if I don't want to rack up much money in late fees; anyway, there is only so much that you can make a king say about glass hills and arranged marriages before you really have to watch people poke a naked girl's dead body with a stick.
Crispin's acting puzzled me a bit. For the first part of the movie, I really wasn't sure whether it was Crispin overacting or Layne putting on a social facade. I do know a few people that act like Layne--not his personality, but their mannerisms (particularly vocal inflections) and the way they interact with people are very similar. It's sometimes hard to tell whether they're creating a dramatic, dominant, supercompetent, "alpha" personality in order to fool themselves or to fool other people. The difference between lying and acting (I've just re-read I Know Things Now, which has given me interesting things to think about method acting).
In Layne's case, I think he's trying to make himself believe it. There are many moments where his facade slips and his fear and insecurity shines through. This happens mainly when somebody inside his circle of friends challenges his percieved dominance. He can't handle it and doesn't know what to do. It's interesting to note that he keeps it up when the policeman is grilling him. That is normal, at least; he is used to adults challenging him and it doesn't matter when they do, as he has no dominance over them to begin with.
Of course, the most obvious betrayal of his true personality is in the penultimate scene of the movie, where he breaks down beside Samson's body. His plans have failed; he is powerless. (I rewound this scene about twenty times. I want it on a repeating loop over my bed. On the fifteenth rewind, I came to the conclusion that "They killed him" and "They fucking killed him" are in fact two different takes of the same moment.)
I must also add that Crispin is incredibly attractive in this movie. Not that this is a surprise.
(ETA: drworm has informed me that her personality is a cross between Layne and Herbert West. This is very interesting and challenging to imagine.)
I can just imagine how Crispin and Keanu must have driven each other crazy on the set. I don't remember where I read this, but I think it's probably true: "Keanu is the type of actor who, when the director tells him to take a sip of water, will say "Okay" and take a sip of water. He will not consider or ask whether the character is thirsty or whether the character is sipping the water just for something to do in an uncomfortable silence or what, if any motivation there is behind the action of the sipping of the water."
However, Keanu is surprisingly believeable in this movie. He gives off a kind of "Bill and Ted gone sour" vibe as a disaffected slacker. I don't think he was acting. I think Keanu is (okay, was) really like this. (Maybe Crispin thought that Keanu was method acting.) The only part that was really unconvincing was the "Mother-fucker! Food-eater!" bit. (I'm going to start calling people food-eaters. That is the greatest insult ever.)
Actually, the whole movie has some pretty complex acting. I think I'm going to have to watch it a few more times (what a sacrifice!) in order to really catch all of the emotional nuances.

Besides the acting, the movie's strength is its incredibly accurate portrayal of teenagers, of their emotions, attitudes, reactions, social roles. I saw someone I knew in every character--I've barely ever seen that in a movie. And indeed, one of the things that the reviews on IMDB.com and Amazon tend to laud is how "depressingly realistic" it shows 80s teens as being--contrasts mentioned are "Family Ties" and "Ferris Bueller."
A quote I liked: "This movie was a stark, staring portrait of a new Lost Generation: children who had nothing to believe in, heads full of pop-culture trash, and frighteningly dissociative views of the world."
The emotional contrast between the teens and adults is not quite as important to the story, but it did inspire me a little...details later.


In any case, this movie has only added to the swirling mess inside my brain. This might eventually come out as a really long crossover or a thesis paper, I don't know.