Pump Up the Volume (1990) review

Pirate radio DJ Mark Hunter (Christian Slater) takes to the airways to play his favorite tunes (by the likes of Leonard Cohen, Ice-T, Pixies and the Beastie Boys), pretends to masturbate and goes on rants about how being a teenager is awful and the high school he attends is corrupt - this draws the ire of the administration, led by Principal Creswood (Annie Ross), but Nora (Samantha Mathis), one of his classmates, is intrigued by him.  I find it a little hard to believe his peers would hang on his every word the way they do - they eagerly purchase cassette copies of his broadcasts - and I'm not too fond of Slater's Clark Kent routine: nebbish outcast by day, bombastic philosopher at night.  There are some decent points in there pertaining to self-improvement and fighting the good fight - despite coming across as a polemic most of the time - and I would have liked for Moyle to really get into the details as to how that school was getting away with expelling so many students to 'artificially' elevate their test scores.