The great cult teen drama of the 90s. It’s the Over the Edge of its time. Christian Slater is a juvenile delinquent, but he’s not a druggie or a street hood—he’s a pirate radio DJ who broadcasts his cynical thoughts anonymously and illegally into the night via a tweaked ham radio rig. He’s the new kid in town and he’s got no friends and no social skills, but give him a microphone and he’ll talk your ear off. Along the way, he becomes a cult hero to the rejects, punks, burn-outs, jocks and popular kids alike who tune in nightly to hear him rail. Meanwhile, the school and the law look to stop him.
The film barely made a ripple in its original release, but found some popularity on video. It might have done better had it been made a year or two later because Christian Slater’s “Happy Harry Hard-On” is a quintessential sensitive, but angry, 90s alternative rock hero. Like Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder always claimed back then, his increased popularity only makes him more miserable. When he sees quotes from his show spray-painted on school walls, it unnerves him. When the kids embrace him as their voice in a world where they otherwise have none, it makes him want to quit. He even listens to the Pixies and The Descendents.
On the bright side, because of his show, fangirl Samantha Mathis schemes to find out his identity and then takes off her shirt in his room. That’s something.
It’s not a perfect movie, but it has a unique story and some compelling moments. As time goes by though, kids will understand it less and less. You couldn’t make this film today because social media on the internet renders its premise obsolete. So, into the cult film bin it goes.