Before true crime podcasts, we had to experience crimes first-hand (kids these days don't know how easy they have it). HOLD UP closes out Noirvember with a blast of 80's nihilistic cool: Tim Hunter’s RIVER'S EDGE (1986). This landmark indie film follows a group of desensitized teens after one of them casually murders his girlfriend. Their reaction - a mix of loyalty, morbid curiosity, and sheer apathy - ripped the facade off 1980s suburban life, creating a chilling, often darkly funny portrait of a moral generation gap.
Anchored by a terrifyingly unhinged Dennis Hopper and a cast of future stars (Keanu Reeves, Ione Skye, and Crispin Glover at his most brilliantly unglued), this film remains a corrosive and essential classic. A grim cornerstone of the 80s indie boom, RIVER'S EDGE is less a whodunit and more of a "who cares", holding a cracked mirror to a generation's moral vacuum. (ALICE ROSE)
