Speedway Junky Review
Date Released: 08/31/2001
Rated: R (violence, pervasive language, sexual content and drug use)
Length: 101 minutes
Produced by: Randall Emmett, George Furla, Rodney Omanoff, Jeff Rice, Rafi
Stephan
Directed by: Nickolas Perry
Cast: Jesse Bradford, Jordan Brower, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Daryl Hannah, Patsy
Kensit, Tiffany-Amber Thiessen, Warren G
Distributor: Regent Entertainment
Critic's Grade: D+
A well-known film critic
once stated, "It's less interesting to see unconventional people express
traditional values than to see conventional people express untraditional
values."* I kept running this thought through my head during "Speedway
Junky," which, until its conclusion, spends outrageous amounts of running
time trying to convince us that its characters have sufficient moral virtues and
should be admired and cared for.
But what reasons does the movie provide for this? Here is a cast of characters
who do everything from indulging in narcotics and theft to desecrating public
property and prostituting themselves for the almighty sawbuck. We've seen things
like this before, where a certain person's habit and/or lifestyle is used as a
constituent for bringing us into said person's situation (case-in-point, 1988's
drug-abuse meller "Less Than Zero" or Darren Aronofsky's brilliant
"Requiem for a Dream"). In the end, however, writer/director Nickolas
Perry is unable to relate to us any sign or evidence that these characters have
learned anything from their experiences, thus rendering their morality null and
void.
The story takes place in Las Vegas, where we meet Johnny (Jesse Bradford), a
runaway-turned-drifter who is trying to make his way to Charlotte, North
Carolina in hopes of becoming a race car driver, or at least a member of a pit
crew. Through a series of uninspired incidents and run-ins with strangers,
Johnny is stripped of everything but what he is wearing on his person, leaving
him broke and stranded.
He meets up with a local street hustler named Eric (Jordan Brower), whose
explanations of street life and how to make it to the big time by selling your
services are one of the movie's laughably bad moments. Johnny accepts his
friendship, but is put off by the fact that his new companion is gay, and worse,
likes it. The two have various conversations about their lives, forming a
connection that borderlines on sexual inclinations, but always keeps itself from
taking the plunge.
On a side note, I have to comment on how this movie is one of the many movies to
showcase would-be wholesome actors making their first big jump into big-boy
territory. Jesse Bradford is a good actor when given the right material, but the
movie seems more interested in sensationalizing itself by casting him in the
role than it is in his actual talent. The same thing applies for Jonathan Taylor
Thomas, who is cast as a bisexual street hustler who spouts obscenities in an
attempt to prove his versatility from his days on the set of the TV show
"Home Improvement." But not once did I believe in these performances;
the film seems more aimed at shocking us through the actors than it does through
character and situation.
There's much more to complain about in the first hour or so of the film. I was
physically ill at the inclusion of "Saved by the Bell" sweetheart
Tiffany-Amber Thiessen as a trashy, randy newly-wed who attempts to bed Johnny
after their initial introduction, only to be interrupted by her Marine husband,
who proceeds to beat Johnny to a bloody pulp. There's no purpose for such a
sequence, nor does it do anything to enhance our liking of the character by
seeing him weakened and defenseless. And then there's Eric's mother-figure,
Veronica (Daryl Hannah), who invites Johnny to dinner one night, during which
she asks him what he wishes for most. "To give a woman an orgasm," he
replies; then they hit the sheets. We soon learn that Eric set all of this up,
trying to help his friend who happens to be a virgin. Ugh. Ew. Spittle.
The movie's final third introduces a conflict of sorts, in which one of the
street hustlers gives Johnny and Eric a stash of money and drugs to hold for him
while he alludes authorities. We see an unknown thief lift the stash from their
apartment, and when the hustler comes calling, all hell breaks loose when he
finds out his life's work is missing. The situation itself is ill-conceived and
ridiculously plotted, but it provides the sole believable moment in the film's
end, where the characters, for a brief, grief-stricken moment, look as if
they've realized the consequences of their actions. But even that is squandered
by the final shot, a phony uplift that provides no apparent sense of awakening
in any of its characters.
In short, what have these people learned from their experiences? Does Johnny
become a better person through his journey into the underworld of sex, drugs,
prostitution and violence? Does Eric ever begin to ponder the way in which he
lives? And why does the movie try so hard to convince us that their way of life
(and I'm not talking about sexual orientation) is something to be tolerated and
accepted? There's a good movie about dealing with the consequences of one's
actions that could have been the focus here, but "Speedway Junky" is
to concerned with its own depravity to realize it.
* Quote taken from Roger Ebert's review of "The Velocity of Gary."
Author: David Litton
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