nacton42 Reviews

The Four Corners of Nowhere (1995)

alternately hilarious and piercingly perceptive; most accurate portrayal of the "gen-X" mentality that I've ever seen

[10/10 · 21 September 1998]

"So when I made her a mix tape with the mandatory number of Indigo Girls songs, I was thinking we'd get it on, y'know?" The above comment from the character Toad is a prime example of writer/director Steve Chbosky's blend of wit and cultural satire displayed in The Four Corners Of Nowhere. Just when you think the film will be a heavy-handed sermon on the lost feelings of this generation, it switches to a stream of sparkling satire on everything from activism to psychotherapy to douche, and back again. For those of you who thought no one read what you read while feeling the way you felt, Chbosky's perfectly balanced film will make you feel you're not alone in either area. Its plot centers on Duncan, a Rimbaud-quoting hitchhiker who visits place after place until he's "literally seen the whole world." In a visit to Ann Arbor, Michigan, he encounters Toad, a surprisingly talented but burned-out performance artist; Julian, the sociopathic college DJ; Stoned (the name says it all); Squeeze, a genius in disguise as the submissive girlfriend of a Kafka-reading painter; and a host of other characters who combine to illustrate Chbosky's ultimately uplifting and accurate film. This one is worth seeing by all means, if only for the reassurance you feel after it's over that you, too, aren't just another fad.

The Four Corners of Nowhere (1995)

Wonderfully-written tongue-in-cheek commentary on "Generation X''s trappings and frustrations

[10/10 · 15 September 1998]

I grew up on The Breakfast Club. So when a film finally did as good a job at following a number of disparate characters as TBC did, I rejoiced that independent film might finally be coming to life again. Steve Chbosky's introspective and on-the-mark gem about a group of so-called drifters in Ann Arbor sets up our expectations about the seemingly one-dimensional characters and then knocks them down in an accurate parallel to what the current generation has been doing to society for years. Chbosky's screenplay is alternately piercingly perceptive and laugh-out-loud funny, and just when you think one extreme will dominate the rest of the film Chbosky switches from emotional discourse to one-liners about the Indigo Girls or vice versa. The story centers on Duncan, a nomad who passes through Ann Arbor for a week or so, only to leave lasting impressions on aspiring folk singer Jenny and surprisingly competent burned-out performance artist Toad. Along the way Duncan (and vicariously the viewing audience) gains insight into human nature, interacts with a frustrated DJ who periodically spouts nuggets of wisdom between deadly accurate monologues about puberty for women, and makes a highly symbolic collage of the U.S., only to teach his friends (and us) that in the end, only we determine if we are just another fad.