Outside Providence (1999)

After one too many run ins with the law, a punk teenager from a working class background is sent to prep school by his frustrated dad, and learns a thing or two.

Director:

Michael Corrente

Writers:

Peter Farrelly (screenplay), Michael Corrente (screenplay)

Stars:

Shawn Hatosy, Amy Smart, Alec Baldwin

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Shawn Hatosy	...	Tim Dunphy
Tommy Bone	...	Jackie Dunphy
Samantha Lavigne	...	'Clops'
Jonathan Brandis	...	Mousy
Adam LaVorgna	...	Tommy the Wire (as Adam Lavorgna)
Jesse Leach	...	Decenz
Jon Abrahams	...	Drugs Delaney
Alec Baldwin	...	Old Man Dunphy
Richard Jenkins	...	Barney
Mike Cerrone	...	Caveech
George Wendt	...	Joey
Robert Turano	...	Fran
Kristen Shorten	...	Bunny Cote
Timothy Crowe	...	Mr. Funderburk (as Tim Crowe)
Meghan Duffy	...	Nanny Heidi

Storyline

A boy from Pawtucket, Rhode Island, caught up in the drug scene of the mid-70s, gets in trouble one too many times with the law. To stave off a jail term, his father arranges for him to be placed into a prep school in Cornwall, Connecticut. The terms: Graduate, or else.

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Plot Keywords:

pot | cannabis | quaaludes | pesticide | insecticide | 

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Taglines:

Tim's getting a future...whether he likes it or not!

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for pervasive teen drug use and strong language including sexual references

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 September 1999 (USA)

Also Known As:

Anexigiti pronoia

Filming Locations:

Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$7,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$3,370,662, 5 September 1999, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$7,292,175, 10 October 1999

Company Credits

Production Co:

Miramax, Eagle Beach

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Final film of George Martin.

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Goofs

One of the first lines in the movie is "This blows." That particular phrase was not part of teen jargon in the 70s.

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Quotes

Timothy Dunphy: My brother's in a wheel chair because of a freak accident as a kid. One day we were playing touch football and he fell off the roof.

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Alternate Versions

The VHS version also features "behind the scenes" takes from the infamous "mental floss" made by one of the students at the cafeteria. There are at least three different shots of it. On the last one, Amy Smart is focused and she is clearly seen saying "Oh, gross!" and then turning her head away discomforted.

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Connections

References Bonanza (1959)

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Soundtracks

So Very Hard To Go
Written by Stephen Kupka and Emilio Castillo
Performed by Tower of Power
Courtesy of Warner Brothers Records Inc.
By Arrangement with Warner Special Products

User Reviews

I Was Expecting A Teen Comedy But This Is Much More Than That

It turned out that there was a lot more to this movie than I was anticipating when I decided to watch it. I watched it largely on the basis of Alec Baldwin, who's a pretty good actor. But at the same time I knew that the basic plot revolved around a kid from the wrong side of the tracks, so to speak, who gets sent to a snooty prep school after getting in some trouble at home. I figured this would turn out to be a pretty typical teen-style comedy, with the "bad kid" heading off to the "good school" and turning it upside down, with the movie becoming little more than sex and drugs. It's true that there's a lot of weed in this, but much to my surprise there's no sex and not even a hint of nudity. It actually turns out to be a fairly complex study of relationships and commitment and the importance of taking responsibility for your actions.

Shawn Hatosy was Tim Dunphy - the kid who gets sent off to this school. We find out early on that he has a troubled home life, loyally devoted to his wheelchair bound little brother Jackie (Tommy Bone) but with a distant relationship with his father, who's played by Baldwin, and who seems to have time to do little else but play poker with his buddies. (As an aside, dad's "buddies" are played by a pretty decent cast of actors, including George Wendt and Richard Jenkins.) For much of the movie we know nothing about Tim's mother, except that she isn't there. When her absence finally gets explained, it resolves some of the issues about what's going on between Tim and his dad, and perhaps explains his dad's emotional emptiness.

The prep school part of the story is also more interesting than expected at first glance. There's some "teen cliché" stuff going on, but really less than I expected. Yes, as I noted, there's a lot of weed smoked over the course of an hour and a half, and there's the requisite "evil" adult character, in this case represented by My. Funderburk, played by Timothy Crowe, but even Funderburke (while a bit ridiculous at times) is less over the top than most similar characters in teen movies. As I said, there's neither sex nor nudity in this, but there is a surprisingly well portrayed romance between Tim and Jane (played by Amy Smart) - a girl from the right side of the tracks. It's one of those unlikely and somewhat unbelievable romances that nevertheless worked in this case, and I thought that Hatosy and Smart were good together. Ultimately, of course, what hijinks there were at the school leads to problems, and Tim has to decide whether to take responsibility for his actions or not, and the revelation of why Tim's mother is absent even leads ultimately to a sort of warming in the relationship between Tim and his dad.

This actually turns out to be a much more interesting movie than one might anticipate. In fact, although it's set in a prep school and is at times humorous, I wouldn't really call this a teen comedy at all. It's got too much going on for that; it raises too many issues to be dismissed as just that. It's surprisingly well done. (7/10)