Where the Day Takes You

Plot synopsis:
Fleeing abusive families, a group of teenage runaways form a protective family on their own, with King as their leader. King is a man in his early twenties who has been living on the street for more than six years. In and out of jail, he spends most of his nights with Little J and Greg. Having spent two months in jail for being falsely accused of murder, he feels that the group fell apart in his absence. His friend Brenda, a lot of the time bullied by Little J because of her weight, introduces him to Heather, a 17-year-old girl from Chicago. He soon takes her under his protection and includes her in his revenge on Tommy, the man responsible for the death of his former girlfriend Devon.
One night, Greg and Little J get into a fight while stealing stereos out of cars. Greg, mad that the group always takes Little J's side, seeks refuge with his drug dealer Ted and his girlfriend Vikki. He sends him away, however, because he doesn't have any money. Greg, not knowing what to do, goes home, but his father has him arrested for grand theft. Meanwhile, King and Heather have trouble earning money, but he insists that they won't get into prostitution, unlike Little J's friend Kimmy. Little J is lured into prostitution by his friend Rob, but while servicing his client Charles, he is reminded of the sexual abuse he suffered as a child at the hands of his uncle. In jail, Greg admits to being addicted to drugs and a social worker gets him into a rehabilitation center, which will grant him parole.
Meanwhile, Tommy, after threatening and beating up his crippled friend Manny, finds out where King is staying. He beats him up and almost stabs him, when Little J shoots Tommy in the back. The group decides to run away, leaving Tommy to die. King and Heather get away, but their friend Crasher is soon arrested. King advises Heather to return to Chicago, but she refuses to go without him. After a day begging for money, they decide to go to a hotel and spend the night making love. She later admits to him that she ran away from home because her brother raped her. Little J, meanwhile, takes refuge at Kimmy's for a while, but he is kicked out by Rob and decides to contact Charles again. Greg runs away from the rehabilitation center in the meantime, but he is unable to find the group. He goes to Ted, who is worried about him because he hasn't slept for four days and tries to help him by shooting him up with heroin.
When Crasher is out of jail, he tries to convince King and Heather to go with him to Dallas, announcing that the police are looking for them. King doesn't want to leave without Greg and Little J and starts to look for them. He is shocked to find Greg lying in his own puke, high on drugs at Ted's place. He promises to go with him, but he is arrested by the police before he can. They next find Little J under a bridge, being kicked out of Charles' house and regretting having shot a person. King, Heather and Little J decide to leave without anyone else. Meanwhile, Greg, out of jail after having talked to the police about King's whereabouts, returns to Ted and overdoses on heroin. On their bus, going to a new destination to start a new life, King decides to get out to look for Greg, but he is arrested by the police. Little J tries to save them and attempts to shoot the police, which forces them to shoot Little J. King, however, jumps in front of him and is shot and killed. Heather witnesses this and is left in tears. She decides not to leave Los Angeles, but to wait until Little J is released from jail. Together, accompanied by Brenda, they return to the streets, using the practice that King taught them.

Tags: romantic

Review:
I pretty much rented this movie because the cast on the cover was rather impressive, and one of the people I work for told me it was really good.
All I can say is, those people that raved about Kids have no idea what they are talking about, this is a much more realistic and true look at life on the street than Kids ever was.
Small parts from Will Smith and Alyssa Milano (you won't recognize her till you see her name in the credits at the end) stand out strongly and Sean Astin gives a very good performance that is unlike most of the films you would see him in (Rudy for example).
I really don't want to give away anything about the plot because I rented it not knowing hardly anything about it and I think that's the way it should be watched.
This overlooked film about teens surviving on the streets of Los Angeles came and went pretty quickly when initially released.
King(Durmont Mulroney)is the leader and protector of an assortment of kids that include druggie Greg(Sean Astin), Little J(Balthasar Getty), smart-mouthed Brenda(Ricki Lake), and newcomer Heather(Lara Flynn Boyle), whom King takes a shine to.
The film follows then through their days of riding boxcars, sleeping under overpasses, and hanging out in public places while avoiding cops, drug dealers, and pimps.
While the film downplays some aspects of the streets( the violence and emotional devastation of child prostitution is acknowledged but not conveyed directly), others are show with uncomfortable intensity.
Sean Austin's fate as the speed-freak Greg is disturbing; the final shot of his character in the film haunted me for days..
I absolutely love this film but I can only watch it once a year because it makes me so sad, I have never cried so much in a film ever, I'm left a nervous wreck, I don't know if it's because I'm happy or sad the way things worked out, but my hat is off to the writer, director, and all the actors, especially Sean Astin's portrayal of Greg.
Rocco took an amazing group of actors and made a beautiful piece that not only refrained from glamourising and sugar-coating life on the streets, but kept a low-key tone to the show rather than play up the idea of a movie with some of Hollywood's best young actors in it.
It presents a real issue in a very real way, and was also a movie you were drawn into, rather than taking on a news broadcast tone.
The downside to this movie is that it is one of those indy films that few will sit down and watch.
Sean Astin(Greg) was really good in this film he played his part well and you feel for him and try to understand how it must feel living life the way they all do on the streets.
Great cast line-up and it was good to see Will Smith in there.
All the characters seemed real not just movie stars playing homeless kids..
The exploits of the kids in this film are way too real.
I used to live on the streets and this film is the first time I've seen street life without the Hollywood polish on it.
Granted all the faces are familiar, and everyone in the film is a star, they play the parts with grit and realism.
It's really great to see that this lifestyle is portrayed as less than glamourous, because all too often "homeless" movies make it seem like it's easy to get out of it.........
Seeing all those big names (Sean Astin, Will Smith, Dermot Mulroney & Rikki Lake) before they all really became famous was great.
They all played thier parts amazigly well and the way the movie was done was great.
I found it very true to the way life on the street is and think more movies like this should be done, but I suppose it's just that every so often you find one of these movies, and that they're unreplaceable..
"King", was by far my favorite character in the movie.
Although the entire cast did a fantastic job of acting out their parts, "King", was my favorite because at the time I watched this film, I was a lot like him; except the being homeless part.
As far as Sean Astin and the part he played, I couldn't relate very much at all, but that didn't matter because his role was extremely powerful and believable!
One more thing, if it wasn't for Melissa Etheridge and her incredible talent, I do not think this movie would have touched as many people as it did.
Gritty and touching film about homeless youth in Hollywood,CA.
"Where The Day Takes You" is about the homeless youth who come from all over the country to escape their dysfunctional families to live on the streets of Hollywood.It is here that this youth form surrogate families with other homeless youth.This film chronicles one such family of homeless youth headed by King who is the father figure.A violent confrontation with another homeless leader turns for the worse and King finds himself desperately trying to keep his family together while avoiding the law.The movie is surprisingly honest about dangers of living on the street and yet portrays the real sense of community that this homeless youth shares with each other.My only issue with this film was perhaps the Melissa Etheridge music which distracted me.It got more tolerable with repeated viewings of this film but to be fair I am not much of a Melissa Etheridge fan.If you like movies about Hollywood or films featuring young attractive actors playing disaffected youth then I would suggest this film..
Most of the cast in this film have gone on to become bigger stars (some MUCH bigger as in the case of Will Smith) in far bigger budget movies, but they'll all have this one to look back on as something to be truly proud of.
Sure, one can quibble with the fact that these people, despite being "glammed down" for the street look, are better looking than "real" homeless youths, but this is Hollywood after all.
A promising feature from director Marc Rocco, who went on to make another movie, and now I haven't seen anything from him for half-a-decade.
All in all, this movie is superbly acted, cinematicly beautiful, and will leave a lasting impression on you for quite some time..
I must admit, I had seen this movie when it first came out, and I totally fell in love with Dermott Mulroney.
There are so many famous actors, that people don't even know are in this movie.
Lara Flynn Boyle, Alyssa Milano, Dermott Mulroney, Rikki Lake, Laura San Giacomo, Sean Astin, Balthazar Getty, Will Smith, Nancy McKeon...This movie is the best movie out there and if you haven't seen it, rent it, buy it, have a party and let everyone come over and watch it!
I was crying like a baby at the end of it, and have seen it maybe 50 times since, and last year I finally found a copy of it that I could buy.
Storyline goes as follows; A group of homeless kids on the streets of LA, lead by the young man King (Dermot Mulroney) struggles with drugs, cops, love, life, each other and themselves.
Heather (Lara Flynn Boyle) is the new comer to the group, and King takes a liking to her.
Greg (Sean Astin) has delved into drugs, Little J (Balthazar Getty) is trying to deal with aggression and growing up.
A love story about all the things you want and need, but is hard to make happen in an impossible world.Mentions also to Will Smith, Ricki Lake, James LeGros,Laura San Giacomo, Kyle McLachlan and Alyssa Milano.
A story that could easily be a true one, considering how many homeless kids there are on our streets.
It is one of my favorite movies of all time!
Dermot Mulroney, Balthazar Getty, Sean Astin and Lara Flynn Boyle give fantastic performances!
It does make you appreciate what you have and makes you realize how some people, kids, can end up and what can happen to them.
But I have to admit that, even though it's a bit of a slow starter, it really is a good movie especially at the end.
You'll get a good insight on what these people's lives are like.
In Los Angeles, the gang of teenagers leaded by King (Dermot Mulroney) survives on the streets begging, prostituting and stealing money.
Among King's best friends are Little J (Balthazar Getty), who is a gay prostitute; Greg (Sean Astin), who is drug addicted capable of stealing to buy drugs with the dealer Ted (Kyle MacLachlan); and the paralytic Manny (Will Smith).
When the newcomer and runaway from Chicago Heather (Lara Flynn Boyle) meets King, they fall in love for each other.
But when Little J kills Tommy Ray to protect King, he is falsely accused of murder and chased by the police, with tragic consequences."Where the Day Takes You" approaches an important and delicate theme, the life of teenagers on the streets, but unfortunately following the glamour and asepsis of Hollywood movies.
In "Where the Day Takes You", actors and actresses are handsome and beautiful, there is no message in the end, and it is almost a kind of incentive for teenagers with problem with their families to run away home, provided they do not use smack or buy a gun.
Marc Rocco writes and directs us into the world of homeless runaways on the streets of Hollywood in this often overlooked early-nineties gem.
(Will Smith, Kyle MacLachlan, Tara Flynn Boyle, Rikki Lake, etc...) Life on the streets has rarely been conveyed so well, and the themes and social issues raised are wrapped in an extremely appealing package..
This is one of the best movies I've ever seen,because I like movies that show all the types of emotions that living on the streets can give you.
I really think they pulled all the kids in this movie off of the streets and stuck them in front of a camera and just told them to do what they normally do because they were so good..
Melissa Etheridge's film debut as an arist, the timing of the song with what's occurring in the scene is amazing.
I too spent a good deal of time learning life's lessons as a homeless teen.
Spending some time being a homeless teen in California, when I first watched this movie it felt like they ripped the script from the pages of my life.
I highly recommend that this movie be placed in everyones 'to watch' file and maybe people will stop looking baffled when I mention it from now on..
For a Hollywood movie filmed in Hollywood about Hollywood, "Where the Day Takes You" is surprisingly lacking in authenticity.
Those who believe this film about the street kids of Hollywood is the real deal haven't spent much time with such kids.
On the downside, there's little story to be found between the scenes as we bear witness to a trite, cliched, and obviously fabricated Hollywood screenwriter's version of Hollywood street kids who in real life comprises a subculture which is far more hip, resourceful, structured, and networked than are the characters in this film.
Where The Day Takes You (1991)Plot In A Paragraph: A group of teenage runaways try to survive on the streets of L.AWhat a cast, what performances, what a great little movie.
If anything it suffers from his famous most of its cast became through various TV and film roles.
Dermot Mulroney is the main actor here as The King, a sort of leader of the runaways.
Sean Astin (in what I now consider his best performance) and Beltzhar Getty are his closest allies, as for Will Smith, he portrays Manny, a legless cripple, who is on the fringes of being in with The King.
Considering the cocky, outgoing public persona Smith was portraying in public at the time, and the light comedic tone of The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air, this was certainly an interesting first movie for Smith.Despite only a $3 million budget, Where The Day Takes You was a commercial flop, grossing only $390,000 at the domestic box office..
This movie is depressing and great a the same time.
It casted actors known for jolly and friendly characters (like Sean Astin from "Goonies" and Will Smith from "Fresh Prince"), and challenges them to portray hopeless kids who are self destructive and refuse help from the adult world.The story is about this pack of teenagers who are surviving in the streets without taking showers or changing clothes (despite having those luxuries available in charities), and they live mostly under a bridge.
The first thought in my mind is that that place probably must be rat infested, but the kids seem to enjoy their lifestyle.It is hard to understand why they live like that, but the movie doesn't judge.
Laura Flynn Boyle gets a little grubby, you know like the average Hollywood run away.And, WORST OF ALL, Melissa Etheridge contributes her rehearsed caterwauling...
Melissa Etheridge is to Janis Joplin as this 'film' is to gritty realism..
Saw this movie when it first came out and loved it ever since.
I don't know anything about how realistic it might be cause I've got no experience with living on the street like the kids in the movie do, but I can relate to kings effort in trying to hold the gang together even though it put a strain on him.
It is also the only drama movie I have seen where the music score fits perfect with the mood of the film.
I also like how king say it's not hard nor easy it just IS Its and excellent movie it's dark and gritty yet good.
The cast is fantastic their performance is great and to me they look believable.
I simply can't say enough good things about this movie.
I just got this movie on DVD and me and my brother laughed, cheered the group led by King, and felt sad all at the same time.
Dermot Mulroney and Balthazar Getty should have got nominations for portraying King and Little J respectively.
A great movie is anything that could touch you in every way possible and this film does it!!!
Sean Astin showed the chops of a great actor he shows now.
A poignant and powerful portrait of the gritty plight of homeless urban street kids.
Dermott Mulroney gives a very commanding and outstanding performance as King, a tough, street smart, ask-for-no-favors recent parolee who lives on the mean streets in and around Hollywood Boulevard; he relates his arduous everyday experiences to prison psychologist Lara San Giacomo and basically acts as a wise, protective father figure to a ragtag bunch of hapless, homeless, penniless runaway youths trying to eke out a meager existence in the City of Angels.An incisive, absorbing, down and dirty look at the unceasingly grim, tense, often distressfully uncertain day-to-day lifestyle of destitute, on their own abandoned derelict kids and the bleak drug and violence-infested hellhole they exist in, "Where the Day Takes You" manages for the most part to be appropriately harsh and hard-hitting, rarely pleasant or overly cloying.
While Mulroney clearly dominates the picture with his sterling, supremely charismatic portrayal of King, the other cast members who play equally on the skids adolescents are just as fine: Lara Flynn Boyle as a guileless new runaway who bolted away from home because her brother was sexually abusing her, Sean Astin as a pathetic, doomed heroin addict (the scene where Astin vomits all over himself is very powerful and his ultimate fate is unforgettably chilling and disturbing), Balthazar Getty as a sullen male hustler, Will Smith as a brash crippled smartaleck, James LeGros as King's loyal best friend, Peter Dobson as a brutal punk hood, and, yes, even tacky, tubby tabloid TV show host Rikki Lake as a peevish, abrasive fat chick are all superb.
'Where the Day Takes You' is a highly underrated drama that seems to only survive via word-of-mouth as one of those odd early 90s well-done social commentary films with a solid (and mostly then-unknown) cast.There were several movies in the late 80s and early 90s that looked at homelessness and runaways, though some of these were human interest documentaries.
'Where the Day Takes You' portrays the commonly ignored castaways in a more honest way than say, the major headlines playing up the situation every once in a while.
Most of all, unlike similar stories, this one does not dare acquiesce to the Hollywood happy ending nor any other trappings of the Hollywood industry.The title says it all of our characters, an assortment of runaways living on the streets of Los Angeles, bonded together as something of an unofficial family.
For the most part, they aspire to no certain future, and live according to 'Where the Day Takes You.' Mulroney is King, the oldest of the group recently released from prison.
This hard-to-find movie is really worth watching (though plug your ears at the Melissa Etheridge soundtrack moments), and one that deserves more credit as part of these actors histories..
anyway - One of the best things about this movie is the second opening shot(not kings narration).
the way the panning shots of H boulevard show all the public going about there daily business and living life on a normal day is excellent.letting us see cast member,by cast member hidden away as if they are just normal average people.
but for me, i was at a real low point in my life when i first watched this movie.
i really liked king and the way he cared for all the kids.
please empathise with me on the fact that if your going through a bad time in life a movie like this can sometimes be that lift you want!!