Firstborn: 35 years later, still great

Darned Hulu, finding favorite movies of mine with a looming deadline! I’ve also come to suspect that if the movie is getting yanked from the service in a few days, they’ve reduced its bandwidth or something. Every time, be it 1984 or this, it chokes in the last 5-10 minutes, forcing me to finish on my computer or iPad.

Firstborn is a personal favorite but it isn’t very well known to the general public. I remember it being released in the Summer of 1984 near the end of the season. Didn’t get to see it in theaters since I was busy trying to get my first job and my parents were forcing me to return to Catholic prison, aka private high school. First viewing was probably cable. I knew I always wanted to see it due to Talk Talk being in the soundtrack. I’ll get to why I love this film later.

Despite Firstborn being set around 1983-84, it’s timeless because divorces and their aftermath continue to happen as per this story. The focus is on Jake, the oldest child of a recently divorced couple. His father left about two years ago and barely seems him or his younger brother Brian (Corey Haim’s big debut!); dad’s law firm keeps him rather busy. These days they live in the New Jersey suburbs with their mother (a ditzy Terri Garr, not a big stretch) who got the house in the settlement. They go about their lives as normally as possible: school, friends (the wild one being Robert Downey Jr.), lacrosse practice, Jake dating Lisa (Sarah Jessica Parker), getting a driver’s permit, etc. Then they receive a call from their estranged father. He wants to have dinner with them. Everyone gets dressed up, ready for a fancy place. Unfortunately, Dad didn’t tell Mom she wasn’t invited and she receives the news in the worst possible way…the woman Dad dumped her for is waiting in the car. Mom hides her disappointment and insists on the boys going. They go and Dad drops a couple more bombshells: he’s marrying again and moving to Montreal. Oh, he’ll still be their father and if they need something call. The news is shared with Mom which sends her into a funk. A funk resulting in her dating a really, really shady guy named Sam (Peter Weller at his finest as an asshole).

Within a month, Sam has moved in and Jake senses something isn’t right about him. None of his stories are consistent about past employment, he adds locks to the house he has some odd mood swings and weird friends of his come by. Mom will have none of these suspicions from Jake or Brian. She needs a win in her life and she’s an adult. Eventually, Jake finds out what is happening, especially as Mom starts to abdicate her responsibilities; Sam got her hooked on cocaine and he’s an aspiring dealer.

This is movie is 35 years old so what I wrote int he above paragraph isn’t a spoiler anymore.

Here’s my favorite part of Firstborn. Jake decides that he needs to get rid of Sam himself without enlisting his father and saving his mother from herself. Having discovered where Sam hides the drugs in the master bedroom, he steals it and hides it around somewhere he often goes necking with Lisa. When Sam’s associates discover Sam doesn’t have the stuff, they leave and call him an amateur. Sam blows his cool-guy facade, starts to beat Mom. Jake intervenes, tells Sam he took it and won’t find it. A SUV versus dirt bike chase ensues with Jake losing. The drugs are recovered but Sam appears to have the upper hand. Mom financed the purchase, unknowingly doesn’t matter because she can be arrested for conspiracy. By now, Mom has regained her courage and asks Sam to leave. A fight breaks out, Jake is on the ropes yet he finally gets his opening as he kicks Sam in the junk and proceeds to beat the hell out of him with these closing words as he pins Sam to the floor, “Stay away from my family or I’ll kill you.” YES! A Gen X’er beats the shit out of a Boomer, something I continue to feel strongly about. You could say it’s a metaphor about the generational gap we’re continuing to duke out.

In all seriousness, if you’re in my age bracket, aka Generation X, give Firstborn another look over. It’s not as tight as John Hughes’ high-school tales nor as quotable as Better Off Dead yet it belongs amongst them as the films about how Gen X grew up in the Eighties. Its relevancy is mainly in how Gen X was the first real generation of kids to live through the wave of divorces which began when California initiated the no-fault divorce. As for the whole matter involving divorce, there are better films focused on the topic.

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