Review: Shoplifters Of The World

Image courtesy of RLJE Films

I'll never forget where I was when airplanes hit the World Trade Center or when Barack Obama won the presidency - or when Donald Trump lost it. For the young, the breakup of a favorite band could be such a pivotal moment. That's the basic premise of "Shoplifters of the World," which is set in Denver in 1987 when the seminal 1980s British band The Smiths called it quits.

The picture is set over the course of one night and focuses on two storylines: In one, a group of college-age youths spend a night on the town mourning the band's breakup before they set off for their lives - a young woman named Cleo (Helena Howard) plans to flee for Paris, a couple made up of Sheila (Elena Kampouris) and Patrick (James Bloor) try to confront their sexual preferences and a young man named Billy (Nick Krause) who loves to masturbate is about to head off to the Army.

In the other story, a distressed Smiths fan and record store employee named Dean (Ellar Coltrane, of "Boyhood") proceeds with a gun to a local radio station, where a DJ named Full Metal Mickey (Joe Manganiello) is in the middle of a heavy metal program, and demands at gunpoint that the night be dedicated to playing Smiths tunes. This storyline is apparently based on a real incident in which a Smiths fan tried to do something similar, but it never made it as far as it does in this picture.

Oddly enough, the more narratively-contrived plot thread - the hostage situation - in "Shoplifters of the World" ends up being the more interesting of the two. Although it starts off a little silly, the repartee between Coltrane and Full Metal Mickey, who's a lot more soulful than one might expect from a heavy metal disc jockey (plus, he likes Whitney Houston and the New York Dolls!), ends up making the film more watchable.

The scenes involving Cleo and her friends are a little less so. None of the four characters are particularly well defined. Cleo complains about some problems with her mother, but this all takes place off screen. Billy appears perpetually horny, and isn't sure whether he likes men or women - although one thing's for sure: He likes blown up balloons (don't ask). While Sheila breaks off from Patrick at a party where much of the action takes place to hook up with a jock, Patrick is left to roam the dance floor and decide whether his bisexual tendencies can overcome his celibate vows (as an ode to Smiths singer Morrissey). 

Of course, the film's most compelling aspect is music that's more than 30 years old. The film plays a number of well known Smiths songs, plus a few deep cuts, and it's interspersed with video clips of interviews with the band's members from the past. There's an interesting moment when Full Metal Mickey tells Dean that, one day, his musical heroes will disappoint him, and it makes one wonder if this is a reference to Morrissey's seeming turn toward right-wing politics in recent years. 

Regardless, that concept is barely explored, as is much else in the film. While Full Metal Mickey and Dean's tete a tete has its moments, the rest of the film is a great soundtrack in search of a movie. The four teenage leads are all appropriately gloomy as they take Smiths lyrics to heart - "if a double-decker bus crashes into us, to die by your side is such a heavenly way to die" - but none of their stories are compelling enough to warrant a movie. Ultimately, "Shoplifters of the World" is a missed opportunity.