Where the Day Takes You (1992)

A Disappointing Continuation

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.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Having finished my look book at the career of Tom Cruise to date, I have decided to do Will Smith next, as I owned most of them anyway, but have not seen a movie of his (except Suicide Squad) since the awful After Earth. Where The Day Takes You (1991)Plot In A Paragraph: A group of teenage runaways try to survive on the streets of L.AWhat a cast, what performances, what a great little movie. How had I never heard of this?? If anything it suffers from his famous most of its cast became through various TV and film roles. Dermot Mulroney is the main actor here as The King, a sort of leader of the runaways. Sean Astin (in what I now consider his best performance) and Beltzhar Getty are his closest allies, as for Will Smith, he portrays Manny, a legless cripple, who is on the fringes of being in with The King. Riki Lake, Lara Flynn Boyle, Robert Knepper, Adam Baldwin, Alyssa Milano, David Arquette, Kyle MacLachlan and James Le Gros all have roles of varying importance to the plot, but all are fantastic. Considering the cocky, outgoing public persona Smith was portraying in public at the time, and the light comedic tone of The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air, this was certainly an interesting first movie for Smith.Despite only a $3 million budget, Where The Day Takes You was a commercial flop, grossing only $390,000 at the domestic box office.

many people nowadays leave negative comments about movies because of there lack of realism. but i think that in itself is hypocritical. a movie is supposed to have some sense of realism yes, but its a movie. we are supposed to let our minds wander for 2hours or so and believe what we are seeing. anyway - One of the best things about this movie is the second opening shot(not kings narration). the way the panning shots of H boulevard show all the public going about there daily business and living life on a normal day is excellent.letting us see cast member,by cast member hidden away as if they are just normal average people. something rarely seen in movies. I'm not gonna elaborate too much on the whole plot. but for me, i was at a real low point in my life when i first watched this movie. i really liked king and the way he cared for all the kids. which is what makes the ending the saddest in history. please empathise with me on the fact that if your going through a bad time in life a movie like this can sometimes be that lift you want!! my favourite movie.

In the beginning I wasn't really convinced about the quality of the movie. Especially the first 30 minutes weren't too special. It felt too much like a typical late eighties / early nineties movie than like an all time classic. But I have to admit that, even though it's a bit of a slow starter, it really is a good movie especially at the end. It's about a bunch of youngsters that live on the streets of L.A. trying to make a living out of stealing and begging and some occasional prostitution. You'll get a good insight on what these people's lives are like. I'm not saying that I had sympathy for them when I saw them using drugs, stealing car radio's... but at least I understood why they did it.All in all I enjoyed watching this movie. It may not be a real classic, but it sure had some potential. I give it a 7.5/10.

Marc Rocco writes and directs us into the world of homeless runaways on the streets of Hollywood in this often overlooked early-nineties gem. Artistic, fast-paced editing and a unique story structure capture and hold our interest with an emotional acoustic soundtrack by Melissa Etheridge. The dim lighting can be frustrating, but it certainly helps to convey the darkness of the subject matter. Understated perfomances also create a compelling character-driven drama by a cast of soon-to-be stars, before the mediocrity of fame had a chance to dull their talent. (Will Smith, Kyle MacLachlan, Tara Flynn Boyle, Rikki Lake, etc...) Life on the streets has rarely been conveyed so well, and the themes and social issues raised are wrapped in an extremely appealing package.