Glory Daze (film)
Glory Daze | |
---|---|
Directed by | Rich Wilkes |
Written by | Rich Wilkes |
Produced by | Michael Scott Bloom Chris J. Slater (co-producer) |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Christopher Taylor |
Edited by | Richard Candib |
Music by | Warren Fitzgerald |
Production company | Seventh Art Productions |
Distributed by |
|
Release dates |
|
Running time | 100 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $15,134 |
Glory Daze is a 1995 American independent comedy film written and directed by Rich Wilkes and starring Ben Affleck, Sam Rockwell, Megan Ward, and French Stewart. It also features John Rhys-Davies, Alyssa Milano, and Spalding Gray in supporting roles. The plot concerns five college housemates in Santa Cruz, California who are facing graduation and make an attempt to prolong their carefree lifestyle before going their separate ways. Matthew McConaughey, Meredith Salenger, Matt Damon, Brendan Fraser, and Leah Remini all appear in minor roles. Music for the film was composed and selected by members of the punk rock band The Vandals, and the soundtrack features several punk rock bands of the era.
Plot
22 year-old Jack Freeman is graduating from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a degree in art, and is hurting from a recent breakup with his ex-girlfriend Dina. He shares a house called "El Rancho" with four friends: Rob is also graduating, and preparing to move to Los Angeles with his girlfriend Joanie, though he is worried about settling down and living so close to Joani's mother. Dennis is a perpetual student with three degrees who, after six years at UCSC, is moving on to an MBA program in Michigan. Mickey is a cartoonist with a year of college still to go, and has feelings for their friend Chelsea but is too shy to reciprocate her affections. Josh, aka "Slosh", had a promising academic future but failed out of college in favor of a life of drinking and working a series of menial jobs.
Art professor Luther criticizes Jack's final sculpture project for expressing an uninteresting, suburban, middle-class worldview, but praises Dennis' thesis—a photo-essay of Slosh getting drunk and working at dead-end jobs—and offers him an apprenticeship; Jack suggests that this is only because Luther has a homosexual attraction toward Dennis, a notion Dennis dismisses. Not wanting their college days to end, Jack convinces his friends to postpone their respective plans and stay at El Rancho for another year. They celebrate the decision by throwing a party, at which Chelsea, tired of her feelings for Mickey going unrequited, makes sexual advances toward Jack. He turns her down, and she leaves the party embarrassed. Rob gets into an argument with Joanie, causing her to leave angrily.
After the commencement ceremony the next day, Rob reconciles with Joanie and meets her mother, and they end up getting along. Jack argues with his parents over his future, and they leave abruptly. Jack encourages Mickey to pursue a relationship with Chelsea. Luther makes a pass at Dennis during a faculty luncheon, confirming Jack's suspicion about his ulterior motives. Dennis and Jack vent their frustrations with Luther by cutting down a totem pole that his sculpture students spent two semesters creating.
At a beach bonfire that night, Slosh tells Jack that it was Jack's carefree attitude that inspired him to give up on college, and that he does not regret his decision because he no longer fears what the future may hold. At Slosh's encouragement, Jack attempts to win back Dina, but she rebuffs him. Back at El Rancho, Mickey admits his feelings to Chelsea, and the two share a kiss. Jack and the others realize that they should not really stay another year, that it is time to move on with their adult lives. To preserve their memories of the house and prevent any future residents from despoiling it, they proceed to smash their furniture and belongings, culminating in the destruction of the bar counter that they had built together.
The next day, the five friends go their separate ways: Rob leaves for Los Angeles with Joanie, Dennis heads off to school in Michigan, and Mickey and Chelsea begin dating. Slosh moves in with a group of new students he has befriended, and hangs the El Rancho sign on their house. As Jack leaves town, he stops at a restaurant where Dina is eating with her new boyfriend, and writes "angst for the memories" on the window as a farewell message to her.
Cast
- Ben Affleck as Jack Freeman, the film's main character, who is graduating from the University of California, Santa Cruz and lives at "El Rancho" with his friends
- Sam Rockwell as Rob, one of the El Rancho housemates, who is also graduating
- Megan Ward as Joanie, Rob's girlfriend, also graduating
- French Stewart as Dennis, an El Rancho housemate and perpetual student who has spent six years in college and earned three degrees
- Kristin Bauer as Dina, Jack's ex-girlfriend
- Vinnie DeRamus as Mickey, an El Rancho housemate and cartoonist for the local newspaper
- Vien Hong as Josh, nicknamed "Slosh", an El Rancho housemate and college dropout
- Mary Woronov as Vicki, Joanie's mother
- Elizabeth Ruscio as Jack's mother
- John Rhys-Davies as Luther, an art professor who Jack and Dennis study under
- Alyssa Milano as Chelsea, a friend of the El Rancho gang who has a crush on Mickey
- Spalding Gray as Jack's father
Affleck, Rockwell, Ward, and Stewart received top
Music
The musical score for the film's
Members of the cast and crew also contributed to the soundtrack. The song "Sports Pack" is sung by Vinnie DeRamus, who played Mickey, with writer and director
Soundtrack album
Glory Daze: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | |
---|---|
Soundtrack album | |
Released | September 17, 1996 |
Genre | Punk rock, ska |
Label | Kung Fu (78761) |
The soundtrack album for Glory Daze was released by Kung Fu Records, Escalante and Fitzgerald's recently launched independent record label. The album includes two songs not used in the film: "Joe Lies (When He Cries)" by The Bouncing Souls, and the previously-unreleased Vandals song "Change the World with My Hockey Stick". Also, rather than the original Bad Religion version of "We're Only Gonna Die" used in the film, the album substitutes a live recording of a cover version performed by Sublime. Other songs used in the film but not included on the soundtrack album include "Kill All the White Man" by NOFX, "Clown Show" by Ednaswap, "She Ballin'" by Chappie Chap, and "Acetone" by Mudhoney.
Track listing
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Artist | Length | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "Theme from Glory Daze" | !!Destroy-Oh-Boy!!, 1993) | Eric Davidson, Jim Weber, Matt Reber, Bill Randt | New Bomb Turks | 2:10 |
15. | "The Moron Brothers" (from Ribbed, 1991) | Fat Mike | NOFX | 2:27 | |
16. | "Berkeley Pier" (from ''Til It Kills, 1995) | Block, Bischoff, Camacho, Gabe Meline | Tilt | 3:45 | |
17. | "We're Only Gonna Die" (live; originally performed by Bad Religion) | Greg Graffin | Sublime | 3:20 |
Reception
Reviewing the film in November 1995, when it was titled Last Call, Variety senior critic Emanuel Levy criticized Wilkes' direction as "awkward, lacking any visual flair" and said that "the movie makes its funny points early on, which means the second half is basically an elaboration. If the loose, anecdotal pic sometimes rambles and loses its main line, eventually it rights itself, with enough inventiveness and fresh, nasty humor to compensate for the dull moments."[1] Upon its theatrical release, Stephen Holden of The New York Times gave Glory Daze a positive review, saying "This tiny nostalgic comedy, with its smart collegiate chatter, is a much better movie than slick fatuities like The Jerky Boys (1995), Airheads (1994), and Billy Madison (1995), for which Mr. Wilkes wrote the screenplays. Of course that isn't saying much. But Glory Daze deftly sketches each member of its underachieving fivesome while sustaining a mood of humorously frazzled end-of-semester anxiety [...] Mr. Affleck's affably mopey performance finds just the right balance between obnoxious and sad sack. Even though he thoroughly deserves every comeuppance, you still have to sympathize with the poor guy."[2]
Edward Guthmann of the
Reviewing the DVD release of the film in 2002, Keith Phipps of The A.V. Club compared it unfavorably to 1995's Kicking and Screaming, calling it "a considerably weaker variation on the same themes [...] Glory Daze is not a good movie, but it does illustrate some of the frustrating clichés that the Gen Angst genre has accumulated in the nearly four years since Reality Bites (1994) appeared."[6]
References
- ^ Levy, Emanuel (1995-11-05). "Review: Last Call". variety.com. Variety. Retrieved 2015-11-21.
- ^ Holden, Stephen (1996-09-27). "Movie Review: Glory Daze (1996) – A Major in Parties and a Minor in Art". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-11-20.
- ^ Guthmann, Edward (1996-09-27). "Film Review – More 'Daze' Than 'Glory' Here / Santa Cruz Slacker Film a Tired Rehash". sfgate.com. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2015-11-21.
- The San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved 2015-11-21.
- ^ O'Bryan, Joey (1996-10-11). "Glory Daze". austinchronicle.com. The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved 2015-11-21.
- ^ Phipps, Keith (2002-05-29). "Glory Daze: DVD Review". avclub.com. The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2015-11-21.
External links
- Glory Daze at IMDb
- Glory Daze at Rotten Tomatoes
- Glory Daze at Box Office Mojo