SLFS Summer Showdown: SLC Punk! vs. Orgazmo

All good things must come to an end, dear SLUG readers. As we approach the ‘ber months, Broadway Center Cinemas says bye-bye to the Summer Showdown and hello to the Tower of Terror for spooky season. What better way to close the showdown than with two tales of young people from Utah coming of age in the 80s and 90s? Yes that’s right, to wrap up our summer here in the land of salt, the Salt Lake Film Society brings us two cult classics, SLC Punk! and Orgazmo.

SLC Punk! follows young punks Stevo (Matthew Lillard, Scream, Scooby-Doo) and Heroin Bob (Michael A. Goorjian, David’s Mother, Amerikatsi) who have just graduated from high school and have decided they are gonna spend the summer before college fucking shit up and kicking the hell out of rednecks. In between party-hopping and driving to Wyoming to get actual beer with their womanizing friend Eddie the Mod (Adam Pascal, Rent, School of Rock), the two punks deal with budding relationships and pressure from parents to go to college. All the while, a friend of theirs, Sean (Devon Sawa, Casper, Final Destination), accidentally absorbs over 100 tabs of acid when running from the cops and tries to kill his mother, believing she was turned into a bull by Satan. These incidents cause Stevo to reflect on what the “punk” lifestyle has become and how it can’t be substantial in the long term. This all comes to a head at a party after Stevo and Heroin Bob have an unsettling encounter with Bob’s father. Mistakes lead to something that cannot be undone, and Stevo’s life is immediately upended.

I don’t think any film comes close to the “lightning in the bottle” magic that James Merendino managed to capture when he wrote and directed SLC Punk! Everyone you know from our dear state has a story of when and where they saw this film for the first time and what impact it made on their lives moving forward. As a young loner in SLC who wanted to be a filmmaker myself, watching this movie for the first time gave me a second wind when it came to being alive. Nothing quite captured the spastic, all-over-the-place-but-still-kinda-making-sense feel of growing up, in Utah of all places, like SLC Punk! did. Not to be a sappy poser, but nothing made my heart happier than seeing a sold-out theater for the movie that did so much for me as a confused young person. Which is what the magic of cinema is all about, baby! Connecting and listening to other perspectives without judgment or bias! Together we all have something in common, and sometimes that very thing is being a little teenage punk, at some point or another, while living in Salt Lake. Merendino, I thank you for your service.

While not nearly as poignant, Orgazmo also follows a young man from Utah. This man is a Mormon Missionary named Joe Young (a young and adorable Trey Parker, South Park, Team America: World Police) on a mission in Los Angeles of all places. Joe wants to marry his celestial sweetheart Lisa (Robyn Lynn Raab) in the Temple once he gets back from his mission. As luck would have it, Elder Young stumbles upon a way to obtain the funds to do so when knocking door to door with his companion. The catch? He has to act as the title character in the porno superhero flick, Orgazmo. Though the big man is always looking out, Young will not actually have to have “relations” with his co-stars as there will be a “stunt cock” present on set. After production, and Lisa finding out about how Joe obtained the funds for their marriage, Orgazmo becomes a sleeper box office hit, causing director Maxxx Orbison (Michael Dean Jacobs) to kidnap Lisa in order to force Joe to do the sequel. This forces our young Mormon missionary to fully adopt the Orgazmo title and team up with co-star Ben Chapleski, who plays his sidekick Choda Boy (Dian Bachar, South Park, Nightmare Alley) to save the day. 

Is Orgazmo as perfect or as well contrived as South Park? Well, no. Though, it is a fun 94-minute flick that feels almost like a little slice of life as to what was funny back in the 90s. It also helps that you can tell when watching the film that Trey Parker put his heart and soul into every effort he made on screen, a feat that feels hard to come by nowadays in the age of cash-grabbing reboots. On that same topic, it’s such an original idea that understands the assignment, as kids say nowadays. Trey Parker knows the ins and outs of Mormonism, and it never feels cold-hearted or over-malicious. 

I’ll let you guess which of the two is my favorite out of this double-feature… just kidding! I feel as though it goes without saying, but no film has ever come close to making me feel as seen and heard as SLC Punk!, something I believe is very formative to a young person growing up no matter where they live. James Merendino’s monologue of “The Fight” is one of the very reasons I ever started writing! That being said, give both a watch and relish in the gloriously goofy filmmaking that defined the 90s. You won’t be disappointed! –Yonni Uribe

Read other SLFS Summer Showdown reviews:
SLFS Summer Showdown: Being John Malkovich vs Seven
SLFS Summer Showdown: Coffy vs 13 Assassins

To help SLUG continue its support of independent theatres, consider joining our community of donors!