Mark has just moved to Arizona from the East Coast. His parents give him a short-wave radio so he can talk to his pals.

But he sets up a pirate Station, going under the pseudonym of D.J. Hard Harry, and becomes a hero to his peers while inspiring the wrath of the local high school principal.

When one of Harry's listeners commits suicide and chaos breaks out at the school, the authorities are called in to put a stop to Harry's broadcasts....

Made in a time when Slater was at the height of his Heartthrob-ness, and to be fair he was a pretty big deal in the early nineties (if you were fifteen), The film is like a big sunshine Strawberry smoothie, with a little teen angst thrown in.

Slater does channel a kind of profane, alcohol induced Spider-man in his performance. By day, a shy, spectacle wearing back of the class type student, by night, well, you get the gist.

And he has never been better, and I really don't know what happened from there. His Harry is something many the targeted demographic could only dream of doing.

He's honest, funny, sympathetic, and full of empathy, yet he still inspires anarchy across the very small town, and obviously, it irks the older population of the town.

The soundtrack too, is wonderful, playing a kind of narrative in itself, and only adds a little more depth to the film.

There are minor flaws in the film, stereotypes are rife throughout the film, but it wasn't aimed at most people, it was aimed at misunderstood teens, and at one point in our lives, we were one of those.

Still cool 23 years on....

This 1990 film seems to be rather over looked amongst all the "American high school" films of the 80s/90s which is a shame as it is very good.

Christian Slater plays Mark Hunter, a shy teenager who has recently moved from the east coast to a suburb in Arizona. He has difficulty talking to people in person but has no problem talking to people on his illegal radio station where he can hide behind the anonymity of a voice disguiser and become "Happy Harry Hardon". His broadcasts are popular with all the pupils at his school and soon tapes of them are being traded and played at there much to the chagrin of the school authorities.

Much of his broadcast is taken up pointing out the many faults of his school in particular the actions of the principal and the guidance councillor, he also reads letters from his listeners and attempting to give some advice. Unfortunately he can't always help and after a student he spoke to on air carries out his threat to commit suicide the school uses it as excuse to clamp down on anybody who might know who he is.

Also trying to identify him is classmate Nora, played by Samantha Mathis, she however has more luck than the authorities. When he has doubts about carrying on his broadcasts she is the one who talks him into continuing.

The acting in the film is fairly solid especially from Slater and Mathis and the story is both interesting and amusing. Like most good films it isn't without its weak points; the students seem rather too uniformly fans of the broadcasts and the authorities attempts to catch him seem highly amateur although I guess if he'd been arrested five minutes into the film it wouldn't have been as interesting.

Even though it was made almost twenty years ago it still feels relevant today as it did back then the only things that really dates it is the fact that there is no internet and none of the children have mobile phones like they would today.

For me, it's one of the movies I saw once nearly 30 years ago and yet I well remember heaps of scenes and details and even facial expressions of minor characters.

It's a good movie and the soundtrack is extremely good.

Not much happens here, so there's little to spoil. Which completely fits the theme of the movie. Full throttle Gen X angst, apathy, boredom. Few non Gen X'ers will get much out of this movie. And if asked by Boomers or Millenials, Gen X will try for 30 seconds to explain it, realize it's impossible and give up. Oh well, whatever, never mind.

There is one significant flaw (IMHO) and that's Slater's father and one of the school personnel look extremely similar, making some of the scenes confusing.