'subUrbia' is about bored people in a boring suburb called Burnfield. "I can't believe you still live here," says the only person of the group of friends who actually did leave. His name is Pony (Jayce Bartok), he left and became a rock star. As the movie opens his old friends are waiting for him on a parking lot next to a supermarket owned by Pakistanis (Ajay Naidu and Samia Shoaib). His old friends include Jeff (Giovanni Ribisi) and his girlfriend Sooze (Amie Carey), the crazy Buff (Steve Zahn), Tim (Nicky Katt) who is starting to be an alcoholic and Bee-Bee (Dina Spybey), a former alcoholic. They talk about whether Pony will arrive in a limo or not, they drink a lot, they get in a fight with the Pakistanis. They all seem like losers wasting their lives, although Sooze is about to leave for New York to go to an art school. Jeff seems to be smarter than the others but he is wasting time as much as them. Then Pony arrives with his publicist Erica (Parker Posey) and they continue with their talking. And their drinking. And their time-wasting. Some other interesting things do happen.
Here is a movie where the characters could be real people. The rock star Pony for example doesn't think of himself as the big man, like most characters like him do. Buff is getting more wasted and more crazy every second in a way I have seen it for real. There was one scene where he takes something that doesn't belong to him and I laughed hard because I recognized the situation very good. The dialogue in the movie feels as real as it can be in a movie and the performances are all very good. Especially Giovanni Ribisi, Steve Zahn and Ajay Naidu give great performances. Sometimes it is pretty intense and disturbing but it is probably very true. I can imagine real people doing the same kind of stupid things, the same kind of wasting their lives. With the very good direction from Richard Linklater ('Dazed and Confused', 'Tape') this is an interesting movie.
Here is a movie where the characters could be real people. The rock star Pony for example doesn't think of himself as the big man, like most characters like him do. Buff is getting more wasted and more crazy every second in a way I have seen it for real. There was one scene where he takes something that doesn't belong to him and I laughed hard because I recognized the situation very good. The dialogue in the movie feels as real as it can be in a movie and the performances are all very good. Especially Giovanni Ribisi, Steve Zahn and Ajay Naidu give great performances. Sometimes it is pretty intense and disturbing but it is probably very true. I can imagine real people doing the same kind of stupid things, the same kind of wasting their lives. With the very good direction from Richard Linklater ('Dazed and Confused', 'Tape') this is an interesting movie.