Funny, Upfront Smarts in “SLC Punk !”

Matthew Lillard, who first came to attention as the frenetic Stuart in “Scream,” has a potentially star-making role in James Merendino’s sit-up-and-take-notice “SLC Punk.” It’s a sharp, funny and ultimately wise and subtle coming-of-age movie set in Salt Lake City in the ‘80s that, while not strictly autobiographical, draws upon some aspects of the filmmakers’s own experiences.

Lillard has said that he’s drawn to exteme characters, and this film’s self-proclaimed anarchist Stevo is certainly that, but lots more. Stevo is a role demanding range and depth, and by the time this fast and furious film is over, Lillard recalls the youthful Peter Fonda, not only in his lanky presence but in his anti-Establisment stance. Stevo, however, requires of Lillard a zany, corrosive wit and combustible personality rarely if ever asked of Fonda.

What distinguishes “SLC Punk,” which has a rip-roaring soundtrack featuring ‘80s bands, from most rebellious-youth movies is its up-front smarts. Stevo, who dyes his hair blue as part of his punk look, may hate Reagan, hate the grayness of Salt Lake City, repeatedlly viewed from condescending helicopter shots, and embrace the Ramones, the Specials and the Dead Kennedys, but he exhaustingly poses all the big questions about life’s meaning and lack of same. Stevo is a brilliant guy, a philosopher whether he admits it or not, just as he’s a good student in spite of himself. Helping him embrace an exuberant nihilism is his sweetly crazed pal Bob (Michael Goorjian), who has a Mohawk haircut and is paranoid about taking drugs, medicinally or otherwise, but his stance does not exclude booze and cigarettes. As Stevo and Bob carom through their lives, brawling, spouting protests, raising hell in general, they hold that the worst thing anyone could be is a poseur. (One of their passing acquaintances, by the way, is played by German star Til Schweiger, of “Maybe . . . Maybe Not.”)

But what is Stevo to make of Bob when his friend starts saying that maybe Salt Lake isn’t so bad once he has fallen in love with head shop proprietor (Annabeth Gish). And what of Stevo himself, when he senses from the start that he’ll fall for a girl (Summer Phoenix), from a family as rich as his own, an attractive young woman who coolly points out that punk is a fashion and revolution comes from within. At this point we wonder: Could it possibly be that Stevo’s ex-hippie father turned slick corporate attorney (a slyly bemused Christopher MacDonald), with whom he has a humorously sparring relationship, knows him better than he knows himself?

Rambunctious, explosive, scabrous and relentlessly in your face, “SLC Punk” ringingly tells it like it is, but from an ever-widening perspective that illuminates Stevo’s loud and calamitous progress toward a self-knowledge and self-awareness that he’s too intelligent not to accept with a wry humor. “SLC Punk,” which is actually gently satirizing all the outrageousness it seems merely to be reveling in, is in fact quite a grown-up movie.

* MPAA-rated: R, for pervasive language, drug use, violent anti-social behavior and some sexuality. Times guidelines: The film’s strong elements are treated in a humorous, thought-provoking manner.

‘SLC Punk’

Matthew Lillard: Stevo

Michael Goorjian: Bob

Christopher McDonald: Father

Annabeth Gish: Trish

A Sony Pictures Classics release of a Blue Tulip production. Writer-director James Merendino. Producers Sam Maydew, Peter Ward. Executive producers Jan De Bont, Michael Peyser, Andrea Kreuzhage. Cinematographer Greg Littlewood. Editor Esther P. Russell. Costumes Fiora. Production designer Charlotte Malmlof. Running time: 1 hour, 33 minutes.

At selected theaters.