Around The Fire

Around the Fire
USA, 1998; 107 minutes
Director: John Jacobsen
Screenplay: Tommy Rosen, John Comerford
Cast: Devon Sawa, Eric Mabius, Tara Reid

Reviewed by:
Erica Jacobson
Burlington Free Press

Teen-ager crashes and burns in "Around The Fire" by Erica Jacobson

Hollywood pumps out coming-of-age movies so regularly the nation's strategic reserves of angst-ridden teen-agers are running dangerously low. And teen moviegoers regularly pump out the price of a ticket to watch Gap mannequins, oh sorry, young actors anguish over how to be more popular than they already are, how to be cool if there's no possibility of popularity and, of course, what they should wear.

The teen-age main character in "Around The Fire," Simon (Devon Sawa from 1999's "Idle Hands"), worries about a few of those same things, but the most engaging journey is Simon's transformation from Abercrombie to Phish. Or The (sic) Grateful Dead. Or any other band that collects fans who travel form gig to gig. Simon's entree into the world of marijuana, acid, tie-dye T-shirts, microbuses and vegan goo balls begins when his boarding school pal Andrew (Eric Mabius from 1996's "Welcome to the Dollhouse") extracts a red glass bong from the innards of a couch. Not long after, Andrew and Simon head out to see a show by an anonymous and invisible -- but not inaudible -- band.

While roaming through the Oz-like hippie village outside of the concert, he meets homemade vegetable stir-fry cook Jennifer (Tara Reid from last year's "American Pie") and her acid-dealing friend Trace (Colman Domingo from 1998's "Doctor Dolittle").

As Simon spends the summer after graduation touring with his girlfriend, Jennifer, and friends as they follow the band, he ditches plans to attend Princeton in favor of abusing, and eventually dealing, drugs. The rift between Simon and his parents widens as Simon's greed and drug use skyrocket, and it's no surprise he lands in rehab thanks to a bad LSD trip.

You get the sense "Around The Fire" was meant to be the filmmakers' love letter to the community that gathers around bands like Phish and the Dead. But the drug culture overwhelms the music. Simon only really talks about music as a way to prove his worthiness for a special batch of a home chemist's LSD.

Andrew's red bong prompts some of the film's funniest moments. Simon offers a teacher a toke after the teacher catches Andrew and Simon smoking in celebration of a passed math test. The bong sits on the headmaster's desk when he delivers the movie's prize-winning line by asking Simon if he is a "doper."

The first-time writers and director John Jacobsen of "Around The Fire" deliver a film that's unafraid to portray a teen group other than the Old Navy crowd, and that shows the ups and downs, but refuses to condemn, the drugs that are so intertwined with the music.