Rumble Fish
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Year Released: 1983
Rating: 1.0
Dumb dreamer Rusty James (Matt Dillon) worships his older brother Motorcycle Boy (Mickey Rourke) and longs for the days of 'the rumbles' when gangs regularly pummeled the crap out of each other - appearing sporadically is Dennis Hopper ... playing Dennis Hopper. Coppola and S.E. Hinton (who pops up as a hooker) adapted this from Hinton's popular young adult book ... but the movie has a major identity crisis going on: it wants to be an art-house examination of identity ("who am I without conflict") except it's strapped with a banal script (with dialogue that mostly consists of people saying "man" or "Rusty James!" a lot) and inconsequential characters who do nothing but mope (Rourke can't stop mumbling in a low voice, Dillon can't stop rubbing his face). You have to be a special kind of idiot to screw up a relationship with an 18-year-old Diane Lane.
