This year the Sundance Film Festival is celebrating four decades of Independent films. Salt Lake City Weekly published the list of films for 1985 through 2023.River’s Edge was chosen to represent 1987.
Technically, this film launched the previous fall at the Toronto Film Festival, but it certainly exemplified the Sundance spirit in its psychologically complex story of a group of California teens dealing with the revelation that one of their friends has murdered his girlfriend. Director Tim Hunter went on to direct episodes of the legendary Twin Peaks, and the casting provided showcases for then-unfamiliar faces like Keanu Reeves and Ione Skye.