Suburbia

Plot synopsis:
A hitchhiking teenage runaway, Sheila (Jennifer Clay), is picked up on Interstate 605 in the Greater Los Angeles Area by a woman with a toddler. When the car gets a flat tire, they find a telephone booth on the edge of an abandoned tract housing district. While the mother is on the phone, the toddler is attacked and killed by a stray dog.
Another teenage runaway, Evan Johnson (Bill Coyne), leaves his suburban home and alcoholic mother, ending up at a punk rock concert by D.I. Keef (Grant Miner) slips drugs into his drink, and the concert ends abruptly when a female attendee has her clothes torn off by the punks in the audience. Jack Diddley (Chris Pedersen) offers Evan a place to stay at "T.R. House", a punk house in the abandoned tract housing district off Interstate 605. Along the way they pick up Joe Schmo (Wade Walston), who also intends to move into the house. Joe changes his mind when he learns each resident must be branded with the letters T.R., for "The Rejected", but winds up coming back and accepting the brand after discovering his father is homosexual. He begins to form a romantic relationship with Sheila, who has also moved into the house.
The next morning, several men from "Citizens Against Crime", including Jim Tripplett (Lee Frederick) and Bob Skokes (Jeff Prettyman), drive through the neighborhood shooting at the packs of wild dogs that roam the area. T.R. kids Razzle (Flea) and Skinner (Timothy O'Brien) confront them, but the situation is defused by Jack's African-American stepfather, police officer Bill Rennard (Donald Allen). Jack, Evan, and Skinner steal food for the house by raiding the garages of a nearby suburban neighborhood, and make further enemies of Jim and Bob by disrupting their garage sale. When Evan sees on the news that his mother has been arrested for drunk driving, he collects his younger brother Ethan (Andrew Pece) and brings him to live at T.R. House, where Sheila gives him a mohawk. Sheila admits to Joe that she was physically and sexually abused by her father.
During a T.S.O.L. concert, the T.R. gang get into a fight defending Skinner. The men they were fighting with enter the concert and stab a security guard, framing the T.R. kids for the crime by using the knife to hang a flier with "T.R." written in blood. Jim and Bob next witness the T.R. crew vandalizing a convenience store. At a meeting of the Citizens Against Crime, they accuse Bill and the rest of the police of not doing enough to curb the teenagers' criminal behavior, declaring their willingness to take the law into their own hands. Bill goes to T.R. House and implores the teens to stay out of trouble. That night, Jim and Bob invade the house and threaten the teens, assaulting Sheila in the process. The next morning, the kids find that Sheila has killed herself by overdosing on Keef's drugs. Not knowing what to do, they bring her body back to her parents. When the T.R. kids come to the funeral, Sheila's father (J. Dinan Myrtetus) insists that they leave. Joe reveals his knowledge of Sheila's abuse, and a fight breaks out, hospitalizing Sheila's father.
At a Vandals concert that night, Bill shows up and warns the T.R. kids to clear out of T.R. house immediately, before their actions bring the Citizens Against Crime down on their heads, but they decide to stay. Learning of the violence at the funeral, Jim and Bob show up at the house and are attacked by the teens, who drive them off. They bring their car back around for another pass, accidentally running over and killing Ethan. Bill arrives, but is too late to prevent the tragedy.

Tags: violence

Review:
I grew up in the early 80's hardcore punk scene in NYC and like most punks at the time had seen Penelope Spheeris' DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION (the best punk documentary ever made) and was impressed when SUBURBIA(later renamed The Wild Side) came out in a few theatres.
It was, and still is, the most accurate depiction of what being a hardcore punk was like.
Unfortunately, all the new kids who just got into punk in the last decade think this movie is all wrong.
Even one of the commenters on this site mistakenly complained that this movie has it all wrong and punks aren't like that.
The punks in this movie not only acted like real punks, most of them were real punks.
This movie is accurately representative of what it was like back in the original (real) scene days during the Reagan administration..
Penelope Spheeris did a class-A job of depicting what it was like to be young and different in a time in America when outward weirdness invited violence by jocks or other assorted meatheads.
Kids who dye their hair blue and get their eyelids pierced at the mall in 2000 should watch this film and see what the consequences for "expressing one's self" were for old schoolers who think Marylin Manson is nothing more than a cheap Vaudeville rip-off artist.
I also recommend this movie to all the new school kids who think they get it.
Director Spheeris, who also did "Dudes" and "Decline of Western Civilization" before going mainstream, knows enough to make a perfectly romantic (if not realistic) version of punks and skins living in the 80's: complete with shows (on a rickety sound stage, but there's a better circle pit than you're likely to find today), fights with rednecks, squatting, and dealing with a decade where every jock didn't have an eyebrow ring and green hair.
It is, however, the suckiest movie that I have ever wanted to watch about 50 times in my lifetime.
No other movie more accurately portrayed what it was like to grow up in the punk scene in the eighties, and it's one of the only films to show what it was like to squat in the punk scene in Los Angeles.
It's true, if you get a bunch of real punks and attempt to make them actors and get Roger"Carnosaur"Corman to produce it, you should probably expect something to this effect, but the hammy dialogue and acting are part of the charm.
Kids (punks) who live in an abandoned house and are rejected by society.
Also, you can catch Flea in what's probably his first film, credited as something like Mike B.
A lot of people have rated this film with 10's, I can't see that (and gave it a 7) as it is still basically a cheap B movie.
(although I guess that if you're into that kind of movie, you've probably never even heard of this)if you're like me, and grew up with punk rock, than you should check this movie out.
It's a good punk movie...about a bunch of punks who live in some place, and deal with things like death, parents, society, all that jazz.
Just check it out, if you can find it.Oh yeah, the acting in this movie is HORRIBLE...the bands and the shows that they go to are good....watch it now..
The film was shot on a threadbare budget with non-professional actors, with most of the action taking place in an abandoned tract house in a suburb slated for demolition (the area is now a highway).
The film bogs down at times, and often relies on reversed clichés, but was a very good effort for a documentary film-maker who was making her first dramatic feature (Some of the themes of being an outsider were used, with greater success, in Spheeris' feature DUDES).
We all liked D.I and T.S.O.L anyway and seeing them live (well at least in the film) was something that we relished as Punk was not very popular in Florida.
Watching it again I was taken back to my teenage years realising that the film is still as low budget as ever but oh what an impact it made..
Suburbia - A good movie.
Having lived through the UK punk scene around the same time that this movie was made I can relate to a lot of it.
If you were there, you recognize almost every character in the film, and you probably recognize a lot of the "actors." It's a grab bag of punk "types": the skinhead, the conehead, the goth, the mohawk, etc.
If you weren't, you get a pretty good idea about what is was like to be a punk when you couldn't buy it at the mall, when it might actually get you beaten up by jocks, when a nosering might get you fired from the record store.
If you grew up on punk icons Good Charlotte, if you call Green Day's Dookie or Offspring's Smash "old school", if you paint your leather because you saw it on VH1, if you think the term "hardcore" relates to Ozzfest somehow, if you think skinheads originated in America as a racist gang, if you think tagging cars and brick walls started with hip-hop, if you call slam dancing "moshing"...
But if you're really looking for old school, The Damned can give you a good glimpse into where T.S.O.L (with two songs in the movie) and even Brit-pop come from.3.
The fact that not one band gets to finish a set was true a lot of the time, (usually because of idiots like the TR kids!!!) The kids are not meant to be role models they are meant to be lost kids who lash out as kids are wont to do.This movie isn't meant to be over analised .
For anyone who's in their mid 30's and had any interest in Hardcore/Punk during their teens should own this movie.
I don't know about the experience of punkers in other parts of the country in the early to mid 1980's, but as a kid born/raised in LA (and an active punk from 1979 - 1987), this movie comes as close to my personal experience as one could get.Yes, the film and especially the acting are rough - but it is also very "real" to me as a result.
Sorry youngsters, this is not a punk film for the "new generation..."While this film is indeed flawed for many reasons (acting, lighting, etc), it still manages to hold up quite well for those of us who lived the LA scene some 18+ years ago..
Someone finally made a movie about the punk scene!.
A pretty decent movie, although I agree with another comment on here that films such as "River's Edge", "Dogs In Space" and "Sid and Nancy" are better examples of wasted youth, youth alinenation.
The movie is a great example of why kids alienate themselves into movements like the punk scene and how people in the suburban lifestyle are just as bad as these kids supposedly are..
One of the best punk films!.
Though it was more like a B rate movie I loved it!
The acting wasn't very good but damn it the actors got the point across!
The acting isn't stellar but the pointis there aren't many films like it so we have to be grateful forwhat there is.
I think I saw this movie 10-15 times when I was 16.
Although I prefer Alex Coxs' "Repo Man", and Tim Hunters' "River's Edge" for a better look at wasted youth culture in the eighties, "Suburbia" is still a good look at a time gone by.
The Wild Side (I personally know it as Suburbia) is a very well done film.
It may not have a lot of heart or plot or other things some good films have, but it does have one thing- attitude.
It also has some good acting (Flea makes his screen debut in this film) and good scene design.
The film does have plenty of drama to go around (if you don't believe me, just look at the first scene where a rabid dog attacks a defenseless baby) and even though it doesn't have enough heart to back it up, it brings it back up with it's cool punk rock scenes, stylish techniques, and other small things.
In short, besides Wayne's World, this is Penelope Spheeris' best film yet and most likely nothing like this will come around again..
The whole idea of turning punks into actors instead of actors into punks is good for realism but bad for the film overall because the "acting" in this movie is REALLY bad.
Furthermore, for people who aren't into punk rock and know nothing about it, this movie could give the impression that all punks are decadent criminals.
Having live in San Bernardino California and LA Counties during the 80's and 90's as a teen and 20-something; and someone who existed in and around the cast-off, neo-punk and 'Oi!' scenes of the time, I can attest to this being our favorite, and 'most real' look at the trials and successes of the time and scene.I rate this movie high because of the director's realism and poignancy in the presentation.
or are these actors just being, unrehearsed, who they really are.The film is presented as a stark and dark look at runaways and punks.
It shows how the family plays the roles too, and is in-your-face with it.If you understand the harsh reality of this film, and realize that this is your voyeuristic, removed opportunity to hang out with the coolest dregs in places most of you would never be admitted to, the film will have images and scenes that will stay with you for the truth they present.Should rent this movie..
To anyone who wanted to see what being a punk in the 1980's was like..this is it in all it's raw spotty glory.
Everything in this movie was real in it's depiction of squatting in the LA scene.
The movie could have used more punk in the soundtrack as the background noise ..but the concerts from DI , TSOL , and the Vandals more than make up for that.
This movie is about a group of teenagers who come together to form a family, because due to various reasons, they have no one else.
Good film on alienated youths from society.
The film is about a boy who wanders with a group of punks and their living conditions in a run-down house.
A lot of good scenes are displayed including cool punk bands and cops messing with the kids.My main problem is that the acting was pretty whack.The ending is totally unpredictable.Overall this movie gets *** out of **** sorry if i dont remember more.
(Nothing against punk, mind you.) From the beginning of the movie when a kid gets snatched by a wild doberman the "special effects" are world class, if it's an Ed Wood movie!
If you have any interest whatsoever in punk as a musical and/or cultural phenomenon, you should find this film insulting.
I really liked "The Decline of Civilization, Part II: The Metal Years." Heck, I even enjoyed Spheeris's "Wayne's World." But "Suburbia?" A real sophomoric effort, if you know what I mean.
But I did like catching The Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea as a kid and all three of his lines............All in all, a good try, a bad movie..
Penelope Spehhers' "Suburbia" is just like "The Goonies", but so boring and typical, and instead of a bunch of mid-class kids we got a bunch of homeless punk kids playing the neighborhood's bad guys.
The movie is just an excuse to show some punk rock bands playing and some scenes of street vandalism...
The only true redeeming quality about this movie is the live footage of a few early 80's punk bands.
This movie has done the best I've seen so far in explaining their perspective, granted it being quite dated now.I do feel like it does filter the image of them through rose-colored lenses, as kids just trying to get by, raising kids, acting like a family and whatnot.
In Penelope Spheeris's "Suburbia", alienated and unwanted teenagers (and twentysomethings) find a new home for themselves: the "T.R. House" by "The 605".
Mr. Coyne decides to runaway from home, saying goodbye to little brother Andrew Pece (as Ethan Johnson); after their mother has a drunken automobile smash-up, Mr. Pace will join his big brother at T.R. House.T.R. leader Pederson finds Coyne after a punk rock concert, "passed out"; his drink spiked, incidentally, by the film's "druggie" Keef (Grant Miner), who is also a member of T.R. They go pick up Wade Walston (as Joe), who lives with his disinterested gay father.
I'm 15 years old, i live in Melbourne, and i love old Los Angeles punk.
this year, it was made 20 years ago, yet its good enough to make me sign up to this site and try to convince you to watch it.watch it.i love that fact that Penelope didn't use any actors with the rejected (the punk gang) so they all seemed to know what they were doing.
Good movie..
Truly a great dramatic movie, the most realistic version of how punks lived in the 80's and how most of them live today.
Made even sweeter by the fact that most of the actors in it were real punks, and consequently their acting is more realistic, even if it is pretty bad.
One note though: If you do like this movie, make sure when you tell people about it that you mean the 80's punk movie, and not the other lousy movie with the same name..
One of the best punk movies ever made.
I didn't grow up in the scene back then but to everyone who says that punk isn't still like that it is.
I have been in the scene for about 6 or 7 yrs now and i think that "Suburbia" is still a great portrayal of what punk rock ment back then and today.
For everyone that says the acting is crappy its because the movie was made with punks doing the acting.
I just wish that the movie had more great punk bands on the soundtrack..
THIS MOVIE IS GOOD FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO SEE HOW PUNKS LIVE IN A SUBURBAN AREA.
IT'S GOT GOOD FOOTAGE OF GREAT '80s PUNK BANDS.
THIS IS A GOOD FILM THAT PORTRAYS THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN OUSTED FROM SOCIETY (the punks).
THIS FILM DOES A SUPERB JOB SHOWING THAT KIDS LIVING IN THIS SOCIETY ARE UNHAPPY, AND THOSE WHO LOOK LIKE THEY'RE HAPPY, ARE VERY OFTEN CRYING THEMSELVES TO SLEEP AT NIGHT.
IT'S A GOOD DOCUMENTARY ABOUT HOW PUNKS  LIVE IN TODAY'S SOCIETY..
Penelope Spheeris, loyal punk film director, presents a starkly depressing tale about a handful of ostracized teenagers known as The Rejected Kids.
They're a group of punks who left home, neglected in one way or another (except for the main character, Jack) and take up living in condemned housing in Los Angeles.
She treats her subjects with sensitivity; while not really condoning their actions, the film does let you know where these kids are coming from: a society that's let them down in one way or another, or which has failed to understand them.
This is as good an example of "punks on film" as one is apt to see.Spheeris does wonders with her low budget, creating a narrative that's absorbing and entertaining if undeniably disturbing at times.
The concert performances by punk groups T.S.O.L., The Vandals, and D.I. add to the experience.Young Bill Coyne is front and centre as Evan, a teen who flees his alcoholic, judgemental mother, and hooks up with a pack of punkers who all squat in an abandoned home near an L.A. freeway.
And things take a real downturn when our protagonists attend a funeral, believing that they have every right to be there.The punks are a fairly colourful bunch, and they include characters such as Razzle (played by future Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea), runaway Sheila (Jennifer Clay), drug addicted Keef (Grant Miner), and charismatic leader Jack (Chris Pedersen).
Despite the low budget and poor acting, this movie is one of my favorites.
They're anti-heroes, showing what life was like "when punk rock was dangerous".
This movie is funny at times, with comic relief in the form of a young Flea (before his stint in the Red Hot Chili Peppers) stealing the show in every one of his scenes.
All flaws aside, I think that if you're into punk rock, you should at least check out Suburbia..
A motley bunch of disaffected punk kids take up residence in a grubby old abandoned home on the outskirts of an affluent California suburb and form their own messed-up, but loyal and loving alternative family.
Writer/director Penelope Spheeris's extremely raw and rough-around-the-edges low-budget indie drama astutely captures the profound sense of burning anger and acute alienation that were key hallmarks of the 80's punk scene.
Don't get me wrong, nearly every character in this film was dislikable - from the aforementioned punks to the neighbourhood folk who have it out for them.
Spheeris is a hit-or-miss director: when she's in the zone, she can create a great film, but this was not one of them.
Although her involvement does explain the bad acting, as she knew a lot of kids and bands in the punk scene after making a great documentary about the L.A. music scene.
The turning point of the film is when the punks lose a friend, and it really hits them hard.
When the punks make one last revolt at the end of the film, it becomes clear what's going to happen.
If you're interested in the punk movement, there's plenty of better films you could watch.
It was like watching my life story.