Anomie among teenagers isn't really compelling comic territory, even if it is set in the beehived '60s and varnished with a "Happy Days" patina. Adopting a hip, wicked stance does not automatically transform material into black comedy. In other words, no one seems to know what's going on
in DEAD BEAT except the set decorator.
Young Rudy (Balthazar Getty) is lost after his family relocates to Albuquerque in 1965. Salvation comes in the form of a notoriously cool friend, Kit (Bruce Ramsay), who seduces virgins with sob stories about leukemia. What thick-skulled, idolizing Rudy doesn't realize is that his hero has
graduated from sexist malfeasance to thrill killing a young girl along with Martha (Sara Gilbert) and Jimmy (Max Perlich), two other misfits in suburbia.
Although randy Kit impregnates Martha (who later unsuccessfully attempts suicide), his dream girl is Kristen (Natasha Gregson Wagner), a spoiled hellraiser who ignores DUI tickets and sleeps around. Their perfect match continues without complications until they spot each other with different dates
at the local make-out area.
Kit tries to impart his lady-killing expertise to Rudy, who pines for Donna (Meredith Salenger). But a spitefully jealous Kristen already has poisoned the minds of the local gals against Rudy with stories of his weird sexual predilections. Determined to Kristen and Rudy, Kit foolishly confesses
his killings. But Kit is already tiring of the small-town Romeo.
Because she now knows too much, Kit kills Kristen, which infuriates mob associates of Kristen's dad. Under police pressure, the troubled young people begin turning on each other, and Rudy winds up revealing the location of Kit's burial sites. Feeling like a loser again, Rudy realizes that life is
not like a James Bond movie as self-destructing idol Kit heads for the penitentiary.
It's apparent that screenwriter Janice Shapiro and writer-director Adam Dubov have no handle on how to control the tone of a film. As the plot careens out of control, the audience is left without a roadmap. If the filmmakers were aiming for a glimpse into the black holes these kids call their
souls, why is the film rife with an unsophisticated presentation of their self-adoring antics? As some seminal '60s works proved themselves (PRETTY POISON, LORD LOVE A DUCK), murder can be a lethally funny topic. But DEAD BEAT is a mindlessly hip student film running amok in a decade it doesn't
begin to understand.
Among the lead actors, only Gilbert delivers the right sort of zonked pathos for her role. Getty underplays too much, while Ramsay and Wagner run to the other extreme, giving shrill, preening performances, and everyone is dolled up like cartoonish refugees from "Shindig."
DEAD BEAT, distastefully conceived and flaccidly directed, plays like a comic version of RIVER'S EDGE (1987). (Extreme profanity, nudity, violence, sexual situations, adult situations, substance abuse.) leave a comment
