Great flick

Rating: Null/10 (23 March 2004)

I love this movie. The idea that all of us are messed up is great. Suburbia has this pretty picture of normal and functional lives. I've watched this many times, but I'm taking a Youth Deviance class and we watched it in there. Makes you look at this movie a little more analytically. Parents treat their kids like mini-adults and pressure them into being something at all costs just to realize the "American Dream". Whatever that is. These kids represent those pressures and isolation. Claire, the popular prom princess who's used as leverage between rivalling parents; John, the punk bad boy with a foul mouth and abusive family; Andrew, the jock with no mind of his own; Allison, the emotionally unstable psycho with no friends and a bit of a compulsive/pathological liar. She's unsatisfied with her home life and wants to run away. And Brian, the geek who would rather commit suicide than face his parents about failing shop class. Each one feel pressure from parents, friends, and themselves to be or act a certain way. We can all relate to that. Yet, I can see why they're called the brat pack. You find it a little annoying that all it takes is some middle class kids to have some problems for people to be aware. What about urban kids who face these issues? Nobody doing a movie about their issues till Dangerous Minds or unknown films. It's sad that this country doesn't care about anything til it hits a certain class. Still, good movie to get some perspective about growing up in the 'burbs.