I guess every decade must have its "disaffected youth" movie and, for the '80s, this is it. Like the others, I don't think it has aged particularly well. Virtually everyone in this movie, even those characters you might expect to be level headed, (school teacher and police officer, I'm looking at you) overacts. The entire movie is "Full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing". Even Dennis Hopper, playing a typical Dennis Hopper character, a one legged ex biker dope dealing murderer on the run, holed up and having an affair with a rubber doll, struggles to make any kind of impression among a cast that have all turned their acting up to 11, Crispin Glover being the worst offender by far. The normally wooden Keanu Reeves tries his best to keep up but here he is like an oasis in a desert, giving you a chance to relax and take a break away from the rest of the over amped cast. No doubt radical and shocking in its day I'd give it a 4/10 for a modern audience.
Review of River's Edge
