SubUrbia 1997

In the fictional town of Burnfield, a tight-knit circle of four young adults tows the line between boredom and trouble as they spend their nights at “the corner” outside a Circle A—a convenience store and gas station run by the couple Nazeer and Pakessa. The group centers on Jeff, who feels aimless and spends his time writing and dating Sooze, a community college student with dreams of studying visual arts in New York City. His closest companions are Buff, a reckless, bluntly frank friend whose bravado masks something more, and Tim, a heavy drinker with a troubled past who left the Air Force under less-than-sterling circumstances. The night scene is intimate and messy, a microcosm of their youth where loyalty and jealousy sit side by side with longing and fear.

Into this cluster enters a glossier, more complicated dynamic with Pony Moynihan, the lead singer of Dreamgirl, a rising rock band about to headline a stadium tour. Pony arrives home in a limousine with Erica, Dreamgirl’s publicist, and he’s eager to reconnect with old friends, even as the others wrestle with mixed feelings—Jeff, amid jealousy, senses a shift in the group’s dynamics when Pony asks Sooze to design the next Dreamgirl album cover. The mood lightens briefly as Bee-Bee, a shy friend of Sooze, joins the gathering, drawn by the promise of a story or a song. But the mood turns sour quickly: Nazeer’s boundary-keeping anger Bites Buff and Tim, who are told to leave the property, and a shove from Tim prompts Pakessa to brandish a gun, sending the crew scattering.

The night leads the friends on separate paths. Jeff and Sooze retreat to Whataburger for a tense, unresolved argument about her plans to move to New York, while Buff and Tim drift toward a liquor store. Buff, ever the opportunist, notices Bee-Bee alone and tells her about a cloud he filmed with a stolen video camera, and they end up sharing a moment of reckless intimacy in an abandoned van. Pony returns in the limo with Erica, and the reunion brings a mix of warmth and friction: Pony’s homecoming joy clashes with Jeff’s lingering resentment, and Buff’s unsteady flirtation with Erica tests the boundaries of the group. Erica, meanwhile, is drawn to Tim’s misanthropic edge, and Tim reveals a graphic truth about his discharge—that he cut off the tip of his own pinky finger as part of his past, a detail he uses to underline that he is not exactly a “nice guy,” even as Erica remains intrigued by his intensity.

As the night winds on, a sense of disarray returns when Tim tries to reassemble the night’s plan, and the group gathers at the Circle A once more. Jeff asks to stop so he can relieve himself, and the situation becomes murky: Buff lies passed out from drinking, Sooze and Pony share a private moment, and Bee-Bee sits with an unopened bottle, confessing her struggle with alcoholism and rehab. Jeff sits with her, listening as a bottle is opened and the moment grows heavier, and he speaks of his resolve to follow Sooze to New York, a vow that casts a quiet shadow over the group’s earlier camaraderie.

Wearied by the drama and the secrets spilling out, the crew reconvenes for a tense conversation. Tim’s evasiveness about Erica’s whereabouts and her absence on the phone heightens suspicion, and a heated argument erupts when Sooze decides to leave with Pony, with Buff decisively hopping into the limo as a last-minute friend-turned-companion. Jeff and Tim exit to look after Bee-Bee, who begins to guzzle down more alcohol. Soon the night takes a sharper turn: Nazeer calls the police after Tim’s escalating behavior, and Tim tearfully confesses to Jeff that he punched Erica in the van and left her there.

Left alone with silence and the dawning light, Jeff confronts the reality of what Tim has admitted. He discovers Erica’s cellphone outside the van, the evidence of a night that spiraled beyond control. As dawn approaches, Buff returns to the Circle A with a boastful swagger about moving to Los Angeles to shoot Dreamgirl’s next video, and he even claims more about Erica, though Jeff suspects he’s exaggerating. Erica herself eventually appears, unharmed, which complicates Jeff’s understanding of the night’s truth. Tim is briefly vindicated by Buff’s bravado, but Jeff remains unsettled, questioning whether anyone truly tells the whole truth in a night where fear and bravado collide.

The morning after brings a fragile and uneasy calm. Tim, fined and released after the arrest, returns, and the group’s earlier bravado and vulnerability collide once more as Buff and Erica drive away. Jeff confronts Tim, who revels in his own mischief and mocks Jeff for believing him, insisting that Jeff lacks the nerve to face what happened in the van. The tension peaks when, still intoxicated, Tim threatens Nazeer with a gun, sparking a standoff that ends with Nazeer pulling his own weapon. Tim climbs to the roof in a last act of defiance, sees Bee-Bee unconscious, and hands her down to Jeff—who believes she’s still breathing—and calls an ambulance. In the end, Nazeer’s sober assessment rings loud: the young men have thrown away what they thought they wanted, a warning that lingers as the sun rises and the town begins to wake.