Permanent Record is a 1988

1988 in film

-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:* Act of Piracy* Action Jackson, starring Carl Weathers, Craig T. Nelson, Vanity, Sharon Stone* The Adventures of Baron Munchausen* Akira* Alice...

 American

Cinema of the United States

The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...

 drama

Drama film

A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...

 film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 starring Keanu Reeves

Keanu Reeves

Keanu Charles Reeves is a Canadian actor. Reeves is perhaps best known for his roles in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Speed, Point Break and the science fiction-action trilogy The Matrix...

, Alan Boyce and Jennifer Rubin. It was filmed on location in Portland and Yaquina Head, Newport Beach, Oregon.

The movie primarily deals with the profound effect of suicide, and how friends and family work their way through the grief.

Plot summary

David (Alan Boyce) seems to have everything. He is smart, talented, funny, and popular. He is best friends with Chris (Keanu Reeves), a quirky outsider. He seems to have it all together, yet as his personal academic expectations and those of his parents become overwhelming, he seemingly is keeping emotional problems secret to himself.

At a party with his school friends along the coast, he takes a walk to the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean.

Chris, playful as ever, decides to sneak up on his friend, but when he emerges from behind a rock, David is not there. He has fallen to his death. Originally assumed to be a horrible accident, the situation changes when Chris receives a suicide note in the mail. Chris and David's girlfriend, Lauren (Jennifer Rubin), want to hold some type of memorial, but a reluctant school decides against it, leaving the kids to memorialize their friend in their own way.

Reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Times praised the film as one of the best 1988 had to offer, stating all the performances were appropriate to the material, whilst also praising Silver for finding authentic ways to portray emotions.

Variety Reviews applauded Reeves performance in the latter of the film, citing Boyce's character's suicide is the primary reason, although also criticizing the female characters in the film.

Rob Gonsalves of efilmcritic.com criticized the film, stating it was nothing more than a 'TV-Movie drama film,' whilst also criticizing the climax of the story. Although he also praised the performance of Keanu Reeves.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack featured five songs by Joe Strummer

Joe Strummer

John Graham Mellor , best remembered by his stage name Joe Strummer, was the co-founder, lyricist, rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist of the British punk rock band The Clash. His musical experience included his membership in The 101ers, Latino Rockabilly War, The Mescaleros and The Pogues, in...

 and the Latino Rockabilly War, as well as individual tracks by Lou Reed

Lou Reed

Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...

, the Stranglers

The Stranglers

The Stranglers are an English punk/rock music group.Scoring some 23 UK top 40 singles and 17 UK top 40 albums to date in a career spanning five decades, the Stranglers are the longest-surviving and most "continuously successful" band to have originated in the UK punk scene of the mid to late 1970s...

, the BoDeans, the Godfathers

The Godfathers

The Godfathers are an alternative rock band from London, England.-Career:The Godfathers were formed by Peter and Chris Coyne from the ashes of The Sid Presley Experience in 1985. After independent single releases produced by Vic Maile, and collected on their debut album, Hit By Hit, they signed to...

, and J D Souther.