I had been trying to see this rare later movie the director of "Myra Breckinridge" and "Joanna" for decades, with no luck, then as these things happen it suddenly turned up in an obscure corner of the internet.
My amazement and gratitude ultimately outweigh the fact that, well, it's not that good--but hey, it's off the bucket list at last. You can tell the film is trying hard to be something along the lines of "My Beautiful Laundrette," with a similar flippant mix of culture-clash seriocomedy amongst various stratas of London. But particularly compared to that breakout, which deservedly got wide theatrical release (after premiering on TV), this is clearly a TV project that is not particularly well-written, unevenly cast, and rather sloppily directed, though it has its moments.
The leads are appealing enough, but the very loose "updating" of "Romeo & Juliet" is never anything more than a gimmick; the material never seriously addresses that source, it just occasionally remembers to riff off it a bit. As for the "punk" milieu, well, by 1993 that wasn't exactly breaking news, and the best you can say about the treatment here is that it provides some snapshot of a scene at a point when nobody much was paying attention anymore. (Not that the music on tap is particularly "punk," anyhow.) Anyway, this is more in the realm of an amiable goof with a few charming moments than anything of substance or even much style.
I wish Sarne had had more directorial opportunities, but he only partially manages to transcend the budgetary and conceptual limitations here. It's a mildly cute, contrived movie--sorta like a cheaper, pseudo-punkier version of a John Hughes joint like "Pretty in Pink," another quasi-edgy teen romcom--that does not leave much lasting impression.
