Suburbia
UW Cinematheque 821 University Ave., UW Vilas Hall, Room 4070, Madison, Wisconsin
press release: USA | 1983 | DCP | 94 min.
Director: Penelope Spheeris
Cast: Chris Pedersen, Jennifer Clay, Flea
Dogs kill toddlers, yahoos shoot dogs, and skinheads crash a teen-suicide funeral in this vividly gangrenous chunk of punksploitation from producer Roger Corman. Rough and tumble, with no buttons left unpushed, this melodrama about a patchwork family of teenage outcasts is empathetically performed by a group of non-professionals, including The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea. Suburbia also served as the narrative feature directorial debut of Spheeris, whose blunt, verisimilar work here eventually led to a gig helming Wayne’s World. A new restoration from Shout Factory and the American Genre Film Archive will be shown.
New Restorations: From the ridiculous (the Marx Bros.’ Horse Feathers) to the sublime (Claude Berri’s moving The Two of Us), our August-December calendar features more than a half dozen other programs of digital restorations not already included in one of our other series. A selection of features and documentaries from around the world and throughout cinema history, the highlight of this series will be an October 31 program of silent movies curated by The New York Times' film critic Mahohla Dargis.