SLC Punk!

For anyone who was there at the time, there's no confusing "SLC Punk!" with real life. Unfortunately, there's no mistaking it for great filmmaking, either.

It's clear that the premise of this punk-culture comedy has some potential. But in the hands of former Utahn James Merendino, it becomes an exercise in self-indulgence, with setups for jokes without payoffs.

That's not to say the film doesn't have its share of laughs. In fact, the first third is definitely filled with some riotous moments — especially if you don't mind watching Utah culture being spoofed. However, the overall hit-to-miss joke ratio isn't anywhere near what it should be.

Also, about midway through, writer/director Merendino abandons the film's previously comedic tone and steers the material into heavy-handed social drama, including an overwrought and contrived (if not particularly predictable) conclusion.

And frankly, the two different halves of the movie don't match up.

The story is set in Salt Lake City during the late '80s and follows a group of young punk-rockers trying to cope with living in a (for them) too-conservative community.

Chief among them is recent high school graduate Stevo (Matthew Lillard), who has become a disappointment to his father (Christopher McDonald), a successful local attorney.

Though his once-rebellious father expects him to go to Harvard Law School and follow in his footsteps, Stevo would rather subscribe to the punk lifestyle — which includes an unending series of brawls and drunken parties.

With Stevo in these adventures is his best friend, Bob (Michael Goorjian), who is beginning to question the anarchist lifestyle. And through a series of tragedies and betrayals, Stevo starts to examine his beliefs as well.

For someone as well-acquainted with the period and setting as he claims to be, Merendino makes a lot of factual errors, which creates some unintentionally humorous moments. And his plotting is actually too ambitious.

Yet, despite his failings as a screenwriter, he is able to coax decent performances out of his cast.

Lillard has the right intensity for the role, while Goorjian (TV's "Party of Five") is more sympathetic and may have made a better lead. And both Jennifer Lien and Annabeth Gish are fine in supporting roles as their respective love interests.

"SLC Punk!" is rated R for excessive profanity, violent beatings, concert violence and some gunplay, drug use, sex, use of sexual slang terms and some crude humor, gore, female nudity and glimpses of nude artwork.