Does the world need another exploration of teenage lives warped by violent social conditioning, lower-middle-class despair, and the panacea of alcohol? Whatever the root cause of delinquency, neo-BLACKBOARD JUNGLE flicks like BOSTON KICKOUT all seem to wipe the noses of troubled
adolescents as they sneeze on the values of their parents.
Having witnessed his mother's suicide in 1982, young Phil is whisked away to a stifling small-town upbringing in Stevenage, England. In the '90s, alienated Phil (John Simm) hangs out with womanizing Ted (Andrew Lincoln), hard-drinking Matt (Nathan Valenti), and malleable Stevie (Richard Hanson).
After the teen pals aggravate Stevie's folks by getting drunk at a family get-together, their adolescent bond is tested by Ted, who hits the road to greener big-city pastures after deliberately wrecking his car. Without ringleader Ted, the quartet disintegrates. Stuck in a nowhere bakery job, Phil
is tempted to join a heist proposed by Stevie's brother Rob (Marc Warren) and his unbalanced friend Brad (Vincent Phillips). But after Rob provokes a fistfight in a bar, Phil distances himself from him.
Temporarily buoyed by romance with his visiting cousin Shona (Emer McCourt), Phil is taken aback by Matt's engagement announcement--which seems a tacit acceptance of the values the teens had always scorned. As his friends drift away, Stevie experiences a mental breakdown. Then, after history
nearly repeats itself when Phil's father tries to kill himself, a shell-shocked Phil travels to see Shona, who has placed little importance on their brief affair. Phil's hard-won common sense is reinforced when Rob's botched robbery lands Rob and Brad in jail and Stevie in a sanitorium. When Phil
spots Ted being interviewed as a bystander on a TV news report, it seems to be a hopeful sign that he can also break away from the No-Exit lifestyles that are endemic to life in Stevenage.
Does anyone need to be reminded of how inhibiting small-town life can be? Is there anyone out there who doesn't know that teen drinking flourishes outside of big cities? Is there any point to analyzing the effects of peer pressure on screwed-up adolescents? Not if the downbeat BOSTON KICKOUT is
any indication. If there is a moral here (beyond the need of adolescents to abandon their hometowns immediately after high school graduation), it's hidden in a morass of delinquent behavioral cliches (the film's title even refers to an act of vandalism) and a grim countdown to tragedy familiar to
anyone who's seen REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1956). Despite a scattering of superb performances (Simm's sensitive Phil and McCourt's flint-hearted Shona), BOSTON KICKOUT still resembles a grubbier version of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971)--with all the stylized violence removed. Why do filmmakers feel
bound to enshrine teen angst as a form of valor? Are we expected to pin purple hearts on everyone who survives puberty? (Graphic violence, extreme profanity, adult situations, substance abuse.) leave a comment