Review – Rebel Without a Cause

Ugh boomers, why do you love this movie as much as you do? It’s a standard 50s era JD picture only with an overpowering frosting of pop psychology smeared all over it. Seriously, this story spins out like a DSM training video. We get a protagonist (James Dean) with a substance abuse problem brought on by a dysfunctional relationship with his overbearing mother and emasculated – apron-wearing, no less – father. We get a love interest (Natalie Wood) with some really icky sexual tension going on with her dad. We get a troubled younger teen (Sal Mineo) who kills puppies because his absentee parents have abandoned him to be raised by the maid. Middle class America, wake up before your children are darned to heck. Good production values save this from turning into a cartoonish mess like Reefer Madness, but the overall message is no more intellectually or emotionally sophisticated. Mildly amusing