Firstborn (1984)

best movie i've ever seen.

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Trouble at home has caused high schooler Christopher Collet to become embittered. The teenager has been rebelling at school and battling with his mother, who is dating a creepy new guy, but instead of seeking advice or aid from adults who may just be a bit more knowledgeable than he, Collet takes matters into his own hands. Pricelessly overripe piece of juvenalia--designed to get kids in the audience cheering--backfires when it becomes apparent that this young rebel has nothing in mind but time-worn solutions. Suburban melodrama wastes some fine actors, including Teri Garr, Peter Weller and Sarah Jessica Parker on tepid material. Clueless screenwriter Ron Koslow eventually shows his hand (and true intentions) once the scenario is turned into a lowbrow psycho-thriller. Definitely not hip. * from ****

(Some Spoilers) There was already trouble brewing at he Livingston home with the husband and father Alan Livingston , Richard Brandon,of the two young boys Jake and Brian, Christopher Collet & Corey Haim,leaving his wife Wendy, Terri Garr, for another woman Joanne, Gayle Harbor. Still you know that something is really hit the fan when the mysterious drifter Sam,Peter Weller, all of a sudden popped up and slowly wormed his way into Wendy's heart and into her home.The two boys, especially Jake, saw right through Sam's phony front as a former independent contractor now working for this local security firm. In fact Sam was a low echelon coke dealer trying to make it to the big time in the local drug trafficking business. With Wendy going through a bout of severe depression, by being left by herself, she was more then happy to get someone who she felt was a good husband, or boyfriend, and father to her two boys. Loving towards Wendy and friendly to Jake & Brian at first Sam begins to show his true colors feelings and motives. He tuns the family home into a local drug den where he deals with all these unsavory characters stooping over to buy and sell dope. As insurance Sam gets Wendy hooked on coke to not only make her more dependent towards him, as her supplier, but also keep her and her boys from reporting him to the police. Sam uses the fear of Wendy's sons knowing that she'll be arrested along with him as a co-conspirator in his drug dealings. The film "Firstborn" does a good job showing how an American family goes through a crisis period after it's left without it's bread-winner The movie not only reflects on the wife, Wendy, but the two children, Jake & Brian. The ending of the movie was about the only drawback to it by trying to tie everything together and make things Right. Not only for the Livingston family but even for Sam ,who despite being kicked out of the house, doesn't end up dead or even thrown behind bars for his criminal actions.

This is another movie about the ramifications of addictions and though it's not "Leaving Las Vegeas" the movie is still welldone and draws you in(it was a book to). It also offers a fresh perspective surprisingly rare for movies of this type-addiction as seen through the eyes-not of the lover or parent-but of the child. In THIS story it's the mother in the family who is problematic-especially when the mother's new boyfriend enters the picture and starts a destructive chain of events.As in most stories of this genre don't expect sweetness and light. It's a good story to see though and one many may relate too. The book is equally as welldone.

FIRSTBORN (1984) *** Teri Garr, Peter Weller, Christopher Collet, Corey Haim, Sarah Jessica Parker, Robert Downey, Jr. Absorbing story of a teenager facing his mother's sudden downward spiral thanks to a shifty loser (Weller in a nice turn). Good acting and an original sleeper.