The appeal of American teenager angst, a popular subject in the early Eighties as well as in James Dean's day, was noticeably wearing thin here, where it became apparent that the novels of S E Hinton, once the hottest properties around, were played out as acceptable film material. Although there are moments when you feel for the characters and want their story to go on, there are rather more when you just want to close you eyes and forget about them. Estevez wrote it as well as starring as the maybe-gay, but for-sure-confused friend of hero Sheffer, whose acquiring of a girlfriend is something he can't accept. Estevez even gives off some reverberations of a young Kirk Douglas in his role, but the film is stolen from everybody by that earthy actress Barbara Babcock as Sheffer's mother.


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