Romper Stomper (1992) Reviews

Before becoming a huge Hollywood star, Russell Crowe started his career in Australian productions and he actually gave his breakthrough performance in this flick. Well to be honest, I ended up with some mixed feelings about the whole thing.  First of all, I have to admit that it was an intriguing depiction of the Skinheads. Indeed, basically, they are some young white guys with some low self-esteem, no skills, no education, no social or financial leverage and not much hope for a bright future. Eventually, when they become skinheads, they finally find a sense of community, some companionship and an ideology which finally gives some meaning to their miserable life. However, the makers provided some rather ambiguous views on this movement as they made it look almost attractive with some catchy skinhead songs. Furthermore, those guys seemed to have usually a good time and even some pretty cool parties. On top of that, the directing and acting were honestly rather weak, except, of course, for the performance provided by Russell Crowe. Indeed, Crowe really stood out from the rest as he gave such an intense and powerful performance, it was really spellbinding to watch. To conclude, even if I think it was rather flawed, it was still very interesting and it is definitely worth a look, at least to see Russell Crowe shining in one of his best roles.