Juvenile Hell: Part 8

Pump Up the Volume (Allan Moyle, 1990)

Needed to cleanse the palate after watching some absolute abominations last month. Allan Moyle's Gen X classic Pump Up the Volume (1990) is the perfect solution. This is the second entry in what is unofficially dubbed the Christian Slater Holy Trilogy around this part of the internet. The other films being Heathers (1988) and True Romance (1993). Being that True Romance doesn't fit in this Juvenile Hell series, and skipping Massacre at Central High (1976) for its spiritual ancestor, is akin to running before learning to walk, the sensible option is to revisit Happy Harry Hard-ons pirate radio shenanigans. Besides which, the Heathers 4K I ordered the other week hasn't arrived yet.

If ever a film encapsulated the pent-up frustrations of the disillusioned generation beset by conservative authoritarianism, Pump Up the Volume would be it. Set in a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona, lonely newcomer Mark Hunter (Christian Slater), turns his parents' basement into a pirate radio show where he anonymously expresses all his teen angst and and music tastes over the radio waves. His fellow students of the oppressive Hubert H. Humphrey High School are eager listeners of the show and tune in every night to hear his antics.

The increasing popularity of the pirate radio show encourages the students into becoming more expressive and rebellious. The results range from suburban white kids gathering around a tape deck and nodding in appreciation to Ice-T's explicit Girls L.G.B.A.F, to the school's very own Claire Standish hilariously blowing up her parents' microwave, to that one random black student always in the background eventually wearing a kufi on his head. In the case of  Hubert H. Humphrey's resident Pam Ayres, Nora Diniro (Samantha Mathis) AKA the "Eat me! Beat me!" Lady, it's sending dirty poems and being potential serial killer bait to Happy Harry Hard-on with letters like this:

"You're the voice crying out in the wilderness. You're the voice that makes my brain burn and my guts go gooey. Yeah, you gut me. My insides spill on your altar and tell the future. My steaming, gleaming guts spell out your nature. I know you, not your name, but your game. I know the true you. Come to me, or I'll come to you."

Other than that one strike against her, Nora is pretty much the dream around the way emo girl from this era: Angela Franklin may have been demonically hot, but  I'll take Nora being everyday hot and not having to worry for my life; plus, she still looked art school bird fit even in old granny dresses and striped stockings; also, she didn't have dandruff like Allison Reynolds. Thus, Nora Diniro is the gateway goth girl of that era. The only other major drawback is the sad reality of her being an entirely fictional character. It's the only explanation as to how any person living in their parents' basement with a penchant for chronically fake fappin' and dry humping a dress for the entertainment of their listeners, manages to land a beauty like her - even if they're cool like Christian Slater. Only in the movies. Interestingly, Slater and Mathis were already a couple during the production of the film. That explains their chemistry feeling so authentic.

The plot involving a tyrannical school regime, headed by Principal Loretta Creswood (Annie Ross) suspending and expelling potential problem/underperforming kids and syphoning their funds to achieve the school's impeccable record, is very much secondary in the grand scheme of the film. It's really all about how one voice can rally others against their oppressors. This makes the film still poignant today. Alternatively, it's also all about Christian Slater's incredible charisma and acting chops. Interestingly, Slater's earliest films performances often draws comparisons to Jack Nicholson. This is the perfect litmus test for any seventies baby, as he comes across as a hyper-realistic version of the actor.

Young ‘uns, take note: the film's social message comes well before the rise of dullards posting cat memes and the existence of echo chambers. Therefore, if scenes of H.H.H and Nora broadcasting in a jeep to outwit the Federal Communications Commission (F.C.C), sounds a tad far fetched and antiquated for you, then please consider, that's far more noble than terminally online folk pretending to care about our freedoms.

Other noteworthy scenes and observations related to the movie are: the fat, entrepreneurial kid selling tapes of the show for $5 while Above the Law's Freedom of Speech is playing on the school speakers; a very young Seth Green not being annoying as his mate; the superior Pixies' Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf) heard in the film; the dumb Pauly Shore lookalike getting punched by Principal Creswood's rottweiler; and finally, the girl who played Cheryl Biggs (Holly Sampson) eventually winding up as an adult film actress.

Pump Up the Volume may be regarded as a nineties classic, but it's timeless for me as it became the go to movie whenever your host was undecided about what to watch to kill time. It was a staple, until my DVD got lost when lending it out to a mate. The disc was already out of print at the time, and it was far too expensive to replace. The pain. From that point on, I stopped lending any films out. Fortunately, I managed to eventually replace it with a a blu-ray upgrade (albeit, a bare bones disc), that was released last year. It's a treasured film here at Case de Spartan.

An undeniable classic.