[8]

The teenagers of a sterile suburban experiment turn to drugs and violence as they rebel against cops, teachers, parents and city planners in Over the Edge, directed by Jonathan Kaplan (The Accused, Immediate Family). This is a surprisingly dark, character-driven coming of age story featuring terrific performances from Matt Dillon (his first film) and Michael Kramer. While the kids are the protagonists, I appreciate that neither the kids nor the adults are painted as purely good or evil. The real enemy is the generation gap. Most other movies of this kind force a pat ending or reconciliation. Not so here — the climax is (literally) explosive and the ending swims in a believable pathos. What I especially love about the movie is its barren, southwest setting. The kids live in a cookie-cutter housing development project, surrounded by half-built homes with dead grass as far as the eye can see. It adds to the film’s pervasive feeling of oppressive isolation. In twilight scenes at the edge of town you can see the headlights of cars on a far-off interstate. The film succeeds so well in creating its claustrophobia, that this interstate might as well be the shores of Avalon.