Dermott Mulroney gives a very commanding and outstanding performance as King, a tough, street smart, ask-for-no-favors recent parolee who lives on the mean streets in and around Hollywood Boulevard; he relates his arduous everyday experiences to prison psychologist Lara San Giacomo and basically acts as a wise, protective father figure to a ragtag bunch of hapless, homeless, penniless runaway youths trying to eke out a meager existence in the City of Angels.
An incisive, absorbing, down and dirty look at the unceasingly grim, tense, often distressfully uncertain day-to-day lifestyle of destitute, on their own abandoned derelict kids and the bleak drug and violence-infested hellhole they exist in, "Where the Day Takes You" manages for the most part to be appropriately harsh and hard-hitting, rarely pleasant or overly cloying. In fact, this occasionally potent and always enthralling film has a raw, squalid, rough-edged semi-verite feel to it, thanks to Mark Rocco's firm, keen, tough-minded direction and King Baggot's crisp, fluid, starkly lit cinematography (a cruelly eagle-eyed Steadicam is put to sporadic and quite effective use). While Mulroney clearly dominates the picture with his sterling, supremely charismatic portrayal of King, the other cast members who play equally on the skids adolescents are just as fine: Lara Flynn Boyle as a guileless new runaway who bolted away from home because her brother was sexually abusing her, Sean Astin as a pathetic, doomed heroin addict (the scene where Astin vomits all over himself is very powerful and his ultimate fate is unforgettably chilling and disturbing), Balthazar Getty as a sullen male hustler, Will Smith as a brash crippled smartaleck, James LeGros as King's loyal best friend, Peter Dobson as a brutal punk hood, and, yes, even tacky, tubby tabloid TV show host Rikki Lake as a peevish, abrasive fat chick are all superb. Other strong thespic contributions are turned in by Adam Baldwin and Rachel Ticotin as cops, a disgustingly on-target Kyle MacLachen as an odious, deceitfully "sympathetic" drug dealer, Leo Rossi as Astin's ineffectual father, Stephen Tobolowsky as a wimpy, shyly courteous gay client who uses Getty for titillation, Alyssa Milano as an underaged prostitute, Robert Knepper as a conceited rock singer, and an unbilled Christian Slater as an interviewer at a drug rehabilitation clinic. Downbeat and depressing for sure, but still a real poignant powerhouse movie just the same.
An incisive, absorbing, down and dirty look at the unceasingly grim, tense, often distressfully uncertain day-to-day lifestyle of destitute, on their own abandoned derelict kids and the bleak drug and violence-infested hellhole they exist in, "Where the Day Takes You" manages for the most part to be appropriately harsh and hard-hitting, rarely pleasant or overly cloying. In fact, this occasionally potent and always enthralling film has a raw, squalid, rough-edged semi-verite feel to it, thanks to Mark Rocco's firm, keen, tough-minded direction and King Baggot's crisp, fluid, starkly lit cinematography (a cruelly eagle-eyed Steadicam is put to sporadic and quite effective use). While Mulroney clearly dominates the picture with his sterling, supremely charismatic portrayal of King, the other cast members who play equally on the skids adolescents are just as fine: Lara Flynn Boyle as a guileless new runaway who bolted away from home because her brother was sexually abusing her, Sean Astin as a pathetic, doomed heroin addict (the scene where Astin vomits all over himself is very powerful and his ultimate fate is unforgettably chilling and disturbing), Balthazar Getty as a sullen male hustler, Will Smith as a brash crippled smartaleck, James LeGros as King's loyal best friend, Peter Dobson as a brutal punk hood, and, yes, even tacky, tubby tabloid TV show host Rikki Lake as a peevish, abrasive fat chick are all superb. Other strong thespic contributions are turned in by Adam Baldwin and Rachel Ticotin as cops, a disgustingly on-target Kyle MacLachen as an odious, deceitfully "sympathetic" drug dealer, Leo Rossi as Astin's ineffectual father, Stephen Tobolowsky as a wimpy, shyly courteous gay client who uses Getty for titillation, Alyssa Milano as an underaged prostitute, Robert Knepper as a conceited rock singer, and an unbilled Christian Slater as an interviewer at a drug rehabilitation clinic. Downbeat and depressing for sure, but still a real poignant powerhouse movie just the same.