Made In USA

Year:	1987
Country:	USA
Language:	English
Genre:	Drama, Crime
IMDB:	IMDB Page
Rating:	2.0 Rate
Collection:	Seen It Wishlist
Community:	1 Has Seen


Director	Ken Friedman
Selected Cast	Chris Penn as Tuck
	Lori Singer as Annie
	Adrian Pasdar as Dar

Comments and Reviews


Twistin 7th Feb 2021		Rated 2/10 What a completely STUPID movie. Way back when, I unsuccessfully tried to locate this film because I had a thing for Lori Singer (well, the 80s version of her, anyway...) Seeing the film now, she looks like a caricature of 80s MTV, pretty but soooo back then. But that has no bearing on the poorness of the film itself. Dar & Tuck are two losers in a small town in Pennsylvania who decide to "drop out", and hit the road so Dar can find a pin-up girl from a surfer magazine, stealing cars and various petty crimes along the way for kicks. And thus, the setup for a road movie, which no doubt seemed like a great artsy, Cannes-y vehicle for our rebellious young director, Ken Friedman. In practice, it comes off like someone got stoned listening to a Timbuk 3 album and decided to make a movie based on the way the record made them feel. Sounds ridiculous, but that's the way it looks. There's not even a convincing existentialist undercurrent. In fact, within 15 minutes, I was ready (and hoping) for our heroes to crash into bulldozers or something. The worst part is around the midway point where we're supposed to find sympathy for the characters, as the crazy Annie rebel chick is seen in tears hugging an Indian woman for no real reason in some greasy spoon restaurant. A link to Indians plopped down on top of the non-story (and it keeps aimlessly building on this subplot!) There's more useless diversions, like Dioxin poisoning, that hang on as long as possible before detouring. No issues addressed, just diluted references randomly fading in and out. How cutting edge. Or the result of the edited cut of the film, following some chaos after the Cannes screening. Apparently this was intended to be a poetic diatribe about ecological concerns, but what we get is a screed in wolf's clothing. (There is a wolf in the film, yet another foolish misstep.) The only bright spot is the music, even if it's wasted on contrived visuals. A mixed bag of tunes from Sonic Youth, John Hiatt, Phil Ochs, The Rubinoos (!), Mojo Nixon / Skid Roper, Rick Cunha, and World Party, among others. I suspect this virtually invisible film will one day develop a cult following, as soon as some hip director says he was influenced by it. There will be 10-star grades weighing heavy on the IMDb score, and will reside on lists with smart names like 1987, while reviews will drop such clever quotes as "Bad hair, dude." But today, I have peace knowing that sometimes a turd is just a turd, and few have heard of "Made in U.S.A." because it truly is wretched. 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Add a Comment or Review about this movie

This Movie: Add Image : Add Video : Add Missing Info : Make Correction : Add to List : Add See Also : Add Tag : Edit Images : Show Image Data : Credits : BBCode