For the Love of... River's Edge
Check's in the mail!
Last night I watched the 1986 crime drama River’s Edge for the first time since I saw it in 1989/1990 on video.
My memories of it were sketchy, but certain things stuck in my mind - enough to make me want to see it again. Crispin Glover’s performance. Dennis Hopper’s performance. Keanu Reeves being moody.
So how did it hold up after all these years?
River’s what? Never heard of it.
Directed by Tim Hunter and written by the late Neal Jimenez, the film opens on the dead body of teenager Jamie, recently murdered by her lumbering, detached psychopath of a boyfriend John. The story follows how John’s friends deal with - or not - the murder and the friction this causes between them.
Sounds… cheery.
It is bleak, and rightly so. Jimenez took inspiration from the real-life murder of Marcy Renee Conrad, who was raped and strangled by Anthony Jacques Broussard in California, in 1981. Broussard bragged to his friends about his crime, which was unreported for two days - even though thirteen people had seen the body.
Grim.
Indeed. The film opens post-murder and focuses on a small group of teenagers for which the term ‘disaffected youth’ was seemingly created. This is one of the earliest on-screen depictions of the so-called grunge/stoner chic era and was a forerunner to the likes of Larry Clark’s movies Kids and Bully (although it never wallows to Clark’s graphic depictions of immorality.)
You’re not really selling this movie.
It’s a serious movie and not an easy sell, but if you’re into pre-Heathers, 80’s American Indie cinema, then this has to be on your watch list.
So we’re not talking John Hughes teen angst?
The depiction of eighties American Youth is a million miles from any John Hughes movie: The order of the day here is gloomy darkness and gritty starkness.
How weird is Crispin Glover in it?
A post-George McFly Crispin Glover delivers a purposely heightened performance that is so OTT and far-out that he’s amusing, bizarre, extreme and maniacal all at once.
Glover plays pill-popping Layne, who has a warped emotional core: All he wants is to protect his friend, John - even though John has committed murder and knows he’s going to “fry” once the police arrest him.
Daniel Roebuck plays John, the desensitised, beer-chugging murderer. In a film with such showy performances, it’s a testament to Roebuck that he doesn’t tread that path: John is bored and alienated; a total blank page, devoid of meaning and a moral compass.
Keanu Reeves plays Matt, who is as close to a hero as River’s Edge gets. He is a far from pleasant character but proves himself to be the dysfunctional heart of the story. It’s a grounded performance, and I think it is Reeves’ best to date. (And if you don’t believe me, ask Alexander Winter - he agrees with me!)
Reeves also appeared in The Brotherhood of Justice around the same time as he made River’s Edge, playing a sort of similar big brother role if more made-for-television. (BoJ also stars Kiefer Sutherland, Billy Zane and Gary Riley - Stand By Me’s baddie Charlie Hogan - and it’s definitely one for 80’s movie completists!)
Corey Haim was originally cast as Matt’s younger brother Tim, but dropped out at the start of the shoot for health reasons. Joshua Miller (who, somewhat bizarrely, is Jason Patric’s real-life half-brother, Lost Boys Fans!) turns in an excellent show of pent-up rage and sulky viciousness.
The film opens with Tim throwing his kid sister’s treasured doll into a river, and by the end of the story he is aiming a gun at his brother. Miller was also excellent in Near Dark as the boy Vampire Homer (a darn sight more menacing than The Lost Boys’ Laddie!).
One-legged ex-biker weed dealer Feck is played by Dennis Hopper. Feck is a weirdo but with a certain straightness: he’s aware of his perverse oddness. Hopper is more off-kilter in the likes of Speed and Blue Velvet than he is here, and it’s quite refreshing to see him so matter-of-fact about his eccentricities.
The cast was paid scale, so finding a “name actor” to play Feck was difficult: John Lithgow and Harry Dean Stanton had passed on the part, and eventually, the film-makers threatened to cast an unpredictable actor named Timothy Carey, which pushed the financiers Hemdale to stump up for Dennis Hopper.
The film doesn’t concern itself too much with female characters: Ione Skye plays Clarissa, who spends her time flirting with her middle-aged teacher, but becomes the film’s decent voice of reason - albeit an ignored and helpless one.
The murdered teenage girl at the centre of the story, Jamie, isn’t given too much concern either: Glover spends most of the film raving about John as if he needs protecting.
Hey, it’s that guy!
Jim Metzler (One False Move, LA Confidential) plays the ex-’Nam protestor-turned-teacher who yells at his ambivalent students for not caring about their murdered fellow student.
The late Taylor Negron (The Last Boy Scout, Allesandro from Friends) crops up as a store owner who gets into a slanging match with John, who tries to buy some post-murder beer.
Tom Bower (Die Hard 2’s Marvin the Janitor or whatever he was) plays a cop who interrogates Layne and loses.
Well? How does it hold up in these days where anything goes?
I recall River’s Edge was shocking back in the 80’s because the murderer had no motive (not that having a motive would make it all okay, obvs). It was one of those films which critics back in the day described as ‘important’ - and for the most part it remains a bleak if watchable film. It hasn’t become a Reefer Madness-type of film: It does pose questions about the teens’ apathy towards their dead friend, but deliberately never offers up any answers, which is the sad point of the story. It’s not a study on why these teenagers are like how they are.
The film’s score by Jürgen Knieper adds to the weirdness - a sort of orchestral-synth noir, which is a bit intrusive at times and sounds a little dated.
Sounds like perfect material for David Lynch.
I did find strange echoes of Lynch in River’s Edge: The body dumped by a river, the small-town suburban setting, the drugged-up teens, moments of dark comedy, and the overall weirdness. It did make me think of Lynch and what he would have done with the script, and the answer is Twin Peaks.
Copyright © Andrew Wright 2023