Category Archives: Troubled Teens

Cult Movie, Drug Culture, Rock 'n' Roll, Troubled Teens

Blu-ray reissue: Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains (***1/2)

July 20, 2026 Dennis Hartley

By Dennis Hartley

(Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on July 18, 2026)

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains – Fun City Editions

A punk version of A Star is Born. This 1981 curio (initially shelved from theatrical distribution) built a cult base, thanks to showings on USA Network’s Night Flight back in the day. As a narrative, this effort from record mogul turned movie director Lou Adler would have benefited from some script doctoring (Slap Shot screenwriter Nancy Dowd is off her game here) but for punk/new wave nostalgia junkies, it’s still a great time capsule.

Diane Lane plays a nihilistic mall rat who breaks out of the ‘burbs by forming an all-female punk trio with her two cousins (played by Marin Kanter and then-15 year-old Laura Dern). They dub themselves The Stains. Armed with a mission statement (“We don’t put out!”) and a stage look possibly co-opted from Divine in Pink Flamingos, this proto-riot grrrl outfit sets out to conquer the world (and learn to play their instruments along the way).

Music biz clichés abound, but it’s a guilty pleasure, due to real-life rockers in the cast. Fee Waybill and Vince Welnick of The Tubes are a hoot as washed up glam rockers. The fictional punk band, The Looters (fronted by an angry young Ray Winstone) features Paul Simonon from The Clash and Steve Jones and Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols.

Fun City Editions package features a new 4K restoration taken from the original 35mm camera negative, which looks fantastic. Extras include 4 commentary tracks (2 archival and 2 brand new), archival audio interview with “Night Flight” co-creator Stuart Shapiro, deleted scenes from the 35mm work print (silent, but with commentary) and more.

60's Counterculture, Drama, Family Issues, Troubled Teens

Blu-ray reissue: Last Summer (****)

July 20, 2026 Dennis Hartley

By Dennis Hartley

(Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on July 18, 2026)

Last Summer (Warner Archive Collection)

This underrated 1969 gem is from the husband-and-wife film making team of director Frank Perry and writer Eleanor Perry (who adapted from Evan Hunter’s novel).

On the surface, it’s a character study about three friends on the cusp of adulthood (Bruce Davison, Barbara Hershey and Richard Thomas) who develop a Jules and Jim-style relationship during a summer idyll on Fire Island. When a socially awkward stranger (Catherine Burns, in a Best Supporting Actress-nominated performance) bumbles into this simmering cauldron of raging hormones and burgeoning sexuality, it blows the lid off the pressure cooker, leading to shocking twists (don’t expect Beach Blanket Bingo). Think Summer of ’42 meets Lord of the Flies; this isn’t so much about the exuberance of youth as it is about the cruelty of youth (a precursor to films like River’s Edge).

Out of circulation for decades (save for an occasional TCM airing), this has been an eagerly awaited reissue for the film’s cultish devotees (count me as one). Warner’s transfer of the new 4K restoration is gorgeous. Extras include a feature-length commentary track by screenwriter Larry Karaszewski (a long-time champion of the film) and film historian Justin Bozung, two 2026 post-screening Q & A sessions with cast members Barbara Hershey, Bruce Davison, and Richard Thomas, and a brief scene with Richard Thomas and his future “TV dad” Ralph Waite (The Waltons) that didn’t make final cut.

Drama, Drug Culture, Family Issues, Troubled Teens

SIFF 2026: Burn (***)

May 14, 2026 Dennis Hartley

By Dennis Hartley

Makoto Nagahisa’s Burn is an ensemble piece reminiscent of the uncompromising youth subculture dramas by outsider filmmakers like Gregg Araki and Larry Clark. A teenage girl, fed up with being constantly ostracized and physically abused by her strict, ultra-religious parents, runs away from home and ends up in Tokyo’s red light district. She is welcomed into a community of street kids, who, like her, are estranged from their families and psychically damaged in one way or the other. You could call it a support system by definition, but it’s a tenuous one at best, as she eventually comes to learn. Frankly, it’s a bit of a downer, but the impressive young cast commits 100% to this realistic, brutally honest portrait of life on the fringe.

Drama, Family Issues, Politics, Troubled Teens

Tribeca 2025: Cuerpo Celesete (***)

June 8, 2025 Dennis Hartley

By Dennis Hartley

(Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on June 7, 2025)

Adolescence can be an emotional roller coaster; likewise the grief process. Dealing with both at once is a daunting test of anyone’s mettle. Chilean writer-director Nayra Ilic Garcia’s meditative family drama opens on New Year’s Eve, 1990. Vivacious 15 year-old Celeste (Helen Mrugalski) is enjoying a beach holiday with her loving family and closest friends (I had to remind myself that Chile is below the equator).

This is not only a happy time for Celeste and her entourage, but for Chileans in general. General Pinochet’s brutal Junta is over for good, with democratically-elected Christian Democrat Patricio Aylwin set to take office in March of the new year.

However, just when everything’s looking up, Fate intervenes with a sudden death in the family. Celeste’s double-whammy of having to cope with growing pains along with an emotionally traumatic personal loss gives impetus to this moving and sensitively acted coming-of-age story. Garcia subtly weaves political analogy in the narrative; using the specter of Chile’s “missing” to mirror a nation coming to terms with collective grief, and the growing pains of a revived democracy that has lain dormant for far too long.

Drama, Family Issues, Troubled Teens

SIFF 2025: Monarch City (**)

May 19, 2025 Dennis Hartley

By Dennis Hartley

(Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on May 17, 2025)

Set in an economically depressed small town in Washington State, writer-director Titus Richard’s network narrative drama serves up a dollop of family angst and sprinkles it with lives of quiet desperation. Hovering somewhere between Peter Bogdanovch’s The Last Picture Show in its aspirations and Larry Clark’s Kids in its vibe, Monarch City suggests both; but due to an uneven script and scattershot approach, it unfortunately achieves neither. Richard does capture and sustain a “nowheresville” mood, and there are some earnest performances, but at 70 minutes and with this many players, there’s barely enough time for any kind of meaningful character development.

Con Game, Drama, Family Issues, Troubled Teens

Tribeca 2024: The Dog Thief (***)

June 24, 2024 Dennis Hartley

By Dennis Hartley

(Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on June 22, 2024)

The future doesn’t look so bright for orphaned, semi-literate working class teenager Martin (Franklin Aro). Cruelly ridiculed by his bourgeois schoolmates, Martin ekes out a meager living as a shoeshine boy on the streets of La Paz and is only afforded lodging by the good graces of his late mother’s friend, who works as a maid in the spacious home of an ailing widow. Martin’s most loyal shoeshine customer is well-to-do tailor Mr. Novoa (Alfredo Castro). Novoa is an empty-nester who spends his off-hours training and pampering his prized German Shepherd.

One day, Martin has a sudden brainstorm for a get-rich-quick scheme; he will kidnap Mr. Novoa’s dog and then enlist his best bud to “find” it and collect the reward. As Martin ingratiates himself into insular Mr. Novoa’s life (initially as part of the scheme), an unexpected bond develops between the two, greatly complicating Martin’s not so-masterminded caper.

Reminiscent of P. T. Anderson’s Hard Eight, writer-director Vinko Tomičić Salinas’ film makes excellent use of the La Paz locales, rendered in a decidedly neorealist style (not so surprising, given the title’s wordplay on Vittorio De Sica’s neorealist classic Bicycle Thieves). Keep an eye on this filmmaker.

Dramedy, School Days, Troubled Teens

Tribeca 2023: Downtown Owl (***)

June 11, 2023 Dennis Hartley

By Dennis Hartley

(Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on June 10, 2023)

It took me a while to get into the rhythm of this quirky comedy-drama, which begins with a nod to Savage Steve Holland (palpable Better Off Dead energy) then pivots into a more angsty realm (as in Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm). Adapted from Chuck Klosterman’s eponymous novel by writer-director Hamish Linklater (no relation to Richard), the story is set during the winter of 1983-1984 in a North Dakota burg (where everybody is up in everyone else’s business).

Julia (Lily Rabe) is a 40-ish, recently engaged, self-described “restless” soul who has just moved to Owl to take a teaching position at a high school. Episodic; we observe Julia over a period of several months as she acclimates to her new environs. She strikes up a friendship with a melancholy neighbor (Ed Harris) and pursues a crush on a laconic buffalo rancher (I told you it was quirky). There’s a sullen high school quarterback, and a pregnant teen (it’s a rule). All threads converge when a record-breaking blizzard descends on the sleepy hamlet. A bit uneven, but it grew on me.

Drama, Family Issues, Troubled Teens

SIFF 2023: L’immensità (***1/2)

May 14, 2023 Dennis Hartley

By Dennis Hartley

(Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on May 13, 2023)

Emanuele Crialese’s semi-autobiographical drama about a dysfunctional family (set in 1970s Rome) combines the raw emotion of John Cassavetes’ A Woman Under the Influence with the sense memory of Fellini’s Amarcord. Penélope Cruz portrays a woman in a faltering marriage struggling to hold it together for the sake of her three children, to whom she is fiercely and unconditionally devoted. Her teenage daughter Edri identifies as a boy named “Andrea” (much to the chagrin of her abusive father). Buoyed by naturalistic performances, beautiful cinematography (by Gergely Pohárnok) and a unique 70s Italian pop soundtrack.

Dramedy, Movie Movie, School Days, Troubled Teens

SIFF 2023: I Like Movies (****)

May 14, 2023 Dennis Hartley

By Dennis Hartley

(Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on May 13, 2023)

To call Lawrence (Isaiah Lehtinen), the 17-year-old hero of writer-director Chandler Levack’s coming of age dramedy a “film freak” is an understatement. When his best bud ribs him by exclaiming in mock horror, “I can’t believe you never masturbate!” Lawrence’s responds with a shrug, “I’ve tried to, but…I’d rather watch Goodfellas or something.” Levack’s film (set in the early aughts) abounds with such cringe-inducing honesty; eliciting the kind of nervous chuckles you get from watching, say, Todd Solondz’s Happiness (a film that Lawrence enthusiastically champions to a hapless couple in a video store who can’t decide on what they want to see).

Lawrence, who dresses (and pontificates) like a Canadian version of Ignatius J. Reilly, is obsessed with two things: Paul Thomas Anderson’s oeuvre, and the goal of getting into NYU film school in the fall (despite not even having been accepted yet, and that he’s not likely to save up the $90,000 tuition working as a minimum wage video store clerk over the summer). Wry, observant, and emotionally resonant, with wonderful performances by the entire cast, SIFF’s closing night selection is a real winner.