SubUrbia

Director: Richard Linklater Richard Linklater

Overview

A gang of suburban slackers spend an evening hanging out at a local convenience store in hopes of seeing an old high-school buddy whose career as a rock singer is about to hit the big time. As they wait, memorable portraits of their young lives emerge. Directed by Richard Linklater and featuring a script by Eric Bogosian, Suburbia is a strongly character-driven comedy that offers sharp insight into the joys, sorrows and struggles of being 20 in the mid 1990s.

Product Details

Release Date:	01/23/2018
UPC:	0888574600389
Original Release:	1996
Rating:	R
Source:	Warner Archives
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	2:01:00
Sales rank:	30,053

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Jayce Bartok	Pony
Amie Carey	Sooze
Nicky Katt	Tim
Ajay Naidu	Nazeer
Parker Posey	Erica
Giovanni Ribisi	Jeff
Samia Shoaib	Pakeesa
Dina Spybey	Bee-Bee
Steve Zahn	Buff
Jonn Cherico	Shopping Channel Host
Kitt Brophy	Sooze's Mom
Keith Preusse	Officer Chip
Eric Park	Officer Gary
William Martin Hayes	Scuff
Bill Wise	Limo Driver
M.J. Lin	Restaurant Hostess

Technical Credits

Eric Bogosian

Richard Linklater	Director
Eric Bogosian	Screenwriter
Alycia Aumuller	Casting
Judy Henderson	Casting
John Sloss	Executive Producer
Walter Strait	Stunts
Anne Walker-McBay	Producer
Ferrell Shinnick	Key Grip
Lizzie Martinez	Casting

Editorial Reviews

If fans of punchier or more titillating teen-angst fare find Richard Linklater's SubUrbia unaccountably dreary, it's because this slightly stagebound Eric Bogosian adaptation is actually more of a darkly comic critique of aimless post-adolescence than an exploitation of it. The conflict between the hard-working immigrant kids who run the convenience store that serves as both primary setting and overriding metaphor and the aimless American youth who hang out in its parking lot says a lot about the supposed middle-class "right" to youthful rebellion. A left turn into suspense may provide the material with a stronger plot arc, but it's the bitching and moaning that provides this film its worm's-eye view of overprivileged disaffection. The young cast proves capable, particularly Ajay Naidu as the perpetually harassed Nazeer and Steve Zahn, reprising his stage role as the goofily endearing Buff. Linklater vets Nicky Katt and Parker Posey also get juicy roles, Katt as the most self-destructive of the film's young protagonists, Posey as a hilariously vacuous music agent. Bogosian and Linklater may seem to view growing up as a choice between selling out and going nowhere, but by the end of their film they portray at least a few more options, giving SubUrbia a sense of optimism that its first two acts may not make obvious.