Rent A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon (1988)

An OTT Look at American Youth - A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon review by Cato

Pretty far fetched, or maybe it isn't, but River Phoenix, looking far younger than his eighteen years, seems to get his way with all the females he meets in this pretty light story which somehow fails to convince.

Mixed Bag - A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon review by Steve

Flawed but still viable coming-of-age/memory story adapted by director William Richert from his own novel. Indeed at times it feels like River Phoenix- as the sexually precocious 17 year old growing up in '60s suburban Chicago- is just reading out the text from the book, which is wannabe JD Salinger.

The setting may be alienating for those who lived their teenage years in the UK, as the kids drive around in big cars. Plus Phoenix in the title role has multiple erotic encounters ranging from a cute, rich debutante (Meredith Salenger) to a well preserved friend of his mother (Ann Magnuson). And more!

Boys in the UK equivalent are grateful if they lose their virginity before the fade out! Yet there's something moreish about these Hollywood rites-of-passage films about the last summer before college and searching for the perfect girl while learning life lessons to the jukebox hits from back in the day.

This environment is ludicrously conservative, but it's never clear if it is being satirised. River Phoenix- the ’80s James Dean- gives the film some cult status. His presence makes Jimmy more attractive than he may have been on the page and surely accounts for why this is a sex film without any nudity.