Streets (1990)

People are voting emotionally.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

I saw this movie in early 90s, and it stayed with me, the plight of street kids, their small pleasures, their drug addiction and especially the sad ending of this movie.It is cruel what life can do to abandoned children. A fine spirited person like Dawn (Applegate) deserves better, but doesn't get it.You'd watch this movie for Applegate - She radiates in this role. The movie could've been better shot and wish a better quality copy is available on DVD. What I could get to watch was ripped from a VCR.If you don't like sad endings - skip this movie - You'd be rattled at the sad reality of street kids and their exploitation.But, this movie deserves far higher than the 5.5 score it has in IMDb right now. I'd rate it at 8.

From the makers of the phenomenal, trend-setting "psycho murders peel artists" milestone "Stripped to Kill" and the outstanding offbeat existential vampire horror knockout "Dance of the Damned" comes this grim, tough, unflinchingly realistic down'n'dirty exploitation thriller about young, strung-out, totally on her own illiterate Venice Beach, Los Angeles prostitute Dawn (a strong, unglamorous, very endearing and somewhat startling performance by Christina Applegate; Kelly Bundy on "Married ... With Children"), a fiercely self-reliant teenager who turns tricks in order to eke out a meager existence and support her heroin habit. Dawn has a near-fatal run-in with brutish, sadomasochistic sleazy teen hooker killing cop Lumley (a cogent, creepy, live-wire portrayal of frighteningly deep-seated seething psychosis by Ed Lottimer), who relentlessly stalks Dawn and savagely picks off her scruffy homeless street people pals throughout the rest of the movie. David Mendenhall offers a solid and likable turn as the naive, slumming rich kid who develops a crush on Dawn and gets caught up in her tawdry and thankless day-to-day lifestyle."Streets" is something of a surprise: it's a gritty, gutsy little B picture (Roger Corman gets credited as the executive producer) that successfully manages to relate a compact, seamy, highly credible slasher narrative while simultaneously delivering a rich and vivid exploration of how unemployed folks at the bottom rung of the socioeconomic ladder somehow manage to barely squeak by and how people with real power and authority in our society can get away with cruelly preying on those hapless and helpless individuals whose utter powerlessness and political vulnerability make them easy targets for constant victimization. Katt Shea Ruben's sturdy, no-nonsense, unsentimental direction (Ruben also co-wrote the rough-edged, pungently insightful script), the garishly lit, evocative cinematography, a brooding melancholy score (the sad, haunting ballad that's beautifully sung by Elizabeth Daily which plays on the soundtrack during the opening and end credits is especially poignant and effective), the top-notch acting (besides the three excellent leads, both Kay Lenz and Starr Andreeff have nice cameos as lady police officers), an authentically grungy depiction of L.A.'s desolate beach-side milieu, and the uncompromisingly downbeat ending all give this shamefully overlooked and underrated scrappy gem a potent scroungy verisimilitude that's extremely compelling and powerful. A real sleeper.

**SPOILERS** Hard hitting and thought-provoking film about life on the streets in one of the most depressing and run down section of the city of Los Angeles that's so barren and lifeless that it looks like it was hit by a nuclear explosion. Even the color in "Streets" is so washed out and lackluster that it comes across like an black white and light-brown film. Surviving on the streets since her prostitute and drug addicted mother deserted her as a little girl Dawn, Christina Applegate,has been turning tricks to support her self and her heroin habit. One day as she's talking business with one of her Johns under the boardwalk he suddenly attacks and tries to strangle her to death. Rescued from the psycho by vacationing music student Sy, David Mendenhall,the two become almost inseparable for the rest of the film due to circumstances beyond their control.It just so happens that the psycho who attacked Dawn turned out to be LA motorcycle policeman Lumby, Eb Lottimer, who's sick obsession is into both taking as well as giving pain.Being stalked by Lumby, who we find out is a serial murder of local L.A prostitutes, who's sick mind just can't accept that Dawn got away from him with Sy's help. During the rest of the movie h murders a number of Dawn's friends in order to get from them information where she's staying at in order to both torture and murder her. The scenes of Dawn living and surviving on the cold hard and unfriendly streets of inner city L.A are about as realistic as any movie that I've ever seen about street people. The film also shows how their lives are nothing more then being able to survive from one day to the next with death as the only way out for them in this hell on earth. Which in many cases is not of their own choosing but whatever fate or providence choose for them.The psycho on the loose angle of the movie is it's weakest point with Lumby being made to be an L.A policemen who thrives on inflicting pain on himself. We also see him going out on the streets and murdering homeless people who don't have anyone who as much as cares if their alive or dead like Dawn. It would have been more believable if Lumby were just your average solitary and rootless psycho-killer who could get away with his crimes a lot easier then a member of the local police force. Who's constantly supervised by his superiors and watched by his fellow police officers whom he works the streets with.The film "Streets" doesn't at all cop out in it's depiction of Dawn who comes across as a hard and bitten street hooker who's seen her best and most productive days long pass her by and rarely if ever as the girl next door type in both her lifestyle and her taste in the good things in life. All Dawn wan't in life in a mattress to lay down on, every now and then with a John customer, a roof over her head and her occasional shot in the arm, with a needle of heroin, to keep her from remembering the depressing life that she's living.Christina Applegate the hot as a pistol teenage sexpot Kelly Bundy of "Married with Children" fame is eerily convincing as the down in the dumps unwashed and unwanted teenage hooker Dawn and her acting in the film is about the best that I ever saw her do on both the big and small screen. Eb Lottimer as the Psycho cop Lumby also making the best of a very difficult role that seemed forced into the movie to spice and heat it up a bit. 18 year-old actor David Mendenhall whom I once saw in a frightening futuristic Twilight Zone episode about mind control called "Examination Day" is both heroic and touching as Sy who tries to not only save Dawn from being killed by her former John, Lumby. But later tries to turn her life around by offering her to come back home with him to his family, something that Dawn never had. Despite a better life and family to love and care for her Dawn in the end goes back to the only life that she ever knew and felt comfortable with the one on the mean bitter and hostile streets of inner city L.A.

A psychotic cop in Southern California is targeting prostitutes for execution; meanwhile, a pretty blonde urchin tries getting her life together. I rented this because I was very impressed with director Katt Shea's work on the underrated "Poison Ivy" and I was not disappointed. The psycho stuff doesn't really jell with the homeless kids angle, but it's a commendable attempt to mix genres, and Christina Applegate gives a superb, surprisingly serious lead performance (her final scene in a bus depot is riveting and heart-rending). Much better than I was expecting, "Streets" is a good, hearty try at both social drama and crime thriller. **1/2 from ****