Every generation of college students deserves at least one fairly insightful, if gross, comic movie about their particular college experience.
Class of `00, may I present to you, not so much with pride but with the assurance that you will laugh at yourselves and each other, "Dead Man on Campus." MTV Productions’ first foray into live-action film proves to be a rather funny, dead-on look at what college life is like for suddenly sprung-from-the-nest vid-kids.
What’s different about these coeds compared to any other generation’s? According to "Dead Man on Campus," in some areas, not much. They still worry about their futures. They still party and experiment with sex. Despite all those anti-drug campaigns, they still smoke dope and drink a lot of beer.
But in other areas, look out. This generation carries its own satchel of psychoses and neuroses, among them a comparatively high incidence of teen suicide and a general malaise.
And remember that age-old college folk tale claiming that if your roommate commits suicide during the semester, you get all A’s? "Dead Man on Campus" turns that myth into an amusing turn-of-the-century morality play.
Given its potentially tasteless premise, it is fairly surprising how carefully "Dead Man on Campus" walks the line between all-out satire and mild-message film. The focus is mostly on comedy, but rarely does the film stray into unnecessary meanness.
Credit the understated screenplay by Mike White and Michael Traeger and some fine comic performances by generally overlooked young actors for contributing to this relatively pleasant and even mildly thoughtful satire.
Clearly, "Dead Man on Campus" is a film made by folks who aren’t that far away from college themselves. Director Alan Cohn has spent a few years hanging out with young adults filming them for MTV’s "The Real World," and he brings a strange sense of realism to this otherwise surreal look at college life.
Adding to the surreality of "Dead Man on Campus" is the presence of Mark-Paul Gosselaar, an alum of the teenybopper TV series, "Saved by the Bell." Here, Gosselaar, gives his image a complete overhaul. He plays Cooper, a bong-toting rich kid who never even attends one class, but still manages to stay cool until his menacing father makes something very clear—pass the classes or come clean toilets for a living at the family business.
Thrown randomly into Cooper’s endless party is Josh, played with perfect innocence by Tom-Everett Scott ("That Thing You Do"). Josh is pre-med and on scholarship, but once Cooper introduces Josh to some wicked, wicked ways, the scholarship looks bleak. Mom will not be pleased.
Enter the "dead man’s clause," a loophole that just might save these guys from academic purgatory.
Josh and Cooper don’t plan on killing anybody, really. Instead, they recruit the guy most likely to implode and invite him to be their roommate. Of course, they look first for the obvious signs: paranoia, self-destructive tendencies, dressing in black. Unfortunately for these two, all is not what it seems on the surface. It turns out that finding the one most likely to do himself in is not as easy as it seems.
One of the roommates’ candidates turns out to be a real live-wire. Cooper and Josh first notice Cliff because of his kamikaze style of partying. Surely this guy will do himself in, they think. After hanging around him for a day, the roommates realize that he is equally likely to do them in.
As Cliff, Lochlyn Munro ("Unforgiven") turns in an epic comic performance. A guy who thinks getting shot in shoulder is a rush, Cliff is funny and unpredictable every moment he is on screen.
Just when I began to feel that poking fun at suicide might not be such a good idea, I noticed the subtle message behind this madness. Not all kids who act out are suicidal, and many who don’t are. This is a confused generation that has seen a lot at a young age. Sometimes it takes a jolt of reality to remind them what has worth and what doesn’t.
"Dead Man on Campus" has its weak spots. This is truly a guy’s film. Women only enter into the film at the margins, and that’s a flaw. Also, the film gets a little sappy toward the end. Still this vision of campus life is vivid and straight-up. It’s also pretty funny.
"Dead Man on Campus" is rated R and contains profanity, a lot of drug use, and mild sexual situations.