Looking like a young Luke Skywalker, Eric Stolz is Keith, a sensitive artist and mechanic from a blue-collar background in suburban Los Angeles. Keith resists his father’s wishes to send him to college. Mary Stuart Masterson is Watts, his tomboy best friend who loves drumming and who has been secretly in love with Keith for years. And then there’s Lea Thompson as Amanda Jones, the girl Keith thinks he’s in love with. But nasty guy Hardy Jenns (Craig Sheffer) has other ideas about who Amanda should be dating.
It's hugely entertaining and very charming. The storytelling is superb. The three leads are all spot-on. It’s extremely earnest and it takes itself very seriously, which seems absolutely the right approach because that’s how teenagers are too. It’s romantic and silly at the same time. The usual 1980s preoccupations with social mobility dominate, alongside some morals about being your own true self rather than being fake with others.
Note: the names Keith, Watts and Amanda Jones are all Rolling Stones references. Presumably the drumming gimmick was also added in reference to Charlie Watts.
I haven’t enjoyed a "youth" film this much since Teen Wolf.
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