Rent Pump Up the Volume (1990)

Slater’s Broadcast of Rebellion - Pump Up the Volume review by griggs

Catching up with Pump Up the Volume three decades late, it’s hard not to grin at its period trappings. Pirate radio as rebellion now feels quaint beside podcasts and TikTok, but the core problems — teenage alienation, adults who don’t listen, and the hunger to be heard — haven’t aged a bit. There’s a sincerity to its angst that still resonates.

The trouble is that the film doesn’t trust its own simple power. What could have been a sharp coming-of-age story about voice and identity gets smothered in escalating jeopardy: corruption scandals, car chases, even a federal investigation. It’s as if every ten minutes someone decided the stakes weren’t high enough. The result is busy rather than focused, loud rather than piercing.

Christian Slater sells the fantasy, mumbling confessions into the mic with just enough charisma to make you believe kids might tune in. But you’re left wishing the film had the courage to do less. With space to breathe, its message could have been a hard-hitting classic. Instead, it’s a time capsule: earnest, overstuffed, yet strangely endearing.

We Belong - Pump Up the Volume review by Steve

Uneven Gen. X melodrama which still strikes a few deeper notes. In the present era of social media, and since the Columbine Massacre, this seems unexpectedly prophetic. A teenage pirate radio shock-jock operating from his bedroom in suburban Arizona changes the climate at his ultra-Conservative High School.

This is surprisingly sincere and while the disillusioned kid’s diatribes are often artless, then that's part of his vulnerability and some of the more profound material goes straight to the heart. Maybe looking like Christian Slater (or his eventual companion, Samantha Mathis!) would alleviate many teenage problems.

But Slater plays up his social anxiety which is unusual for the period. He can't communicate, except via his broadcast, when he talks for everyone and offers an outlet for misfits who suffer alone. Obviously there's a soundtrack of punk and hiphop classics. Boomers get Leonard Cohen singing Everybody Knows.

It loses focus in the later scenes, and the reaction from the fascist headteacher is idiotic. Plus it borrows the climax from Smokey and the Bandit! Yet this stands apart from other 80s/90s High School pictures and makes salient observations on how some colleges finagle good grades; which is sadly now relevant to the UK.