Where the Day Takes You

Directed by Marc Rocco. With Dermot Mulroney, Robert Knepper, Laura San Giacomo, Sean Astin. A group of teen-age runaways try to survive in the streets of Los Angeles. Drugs, prostitution, violence and bureaucratic indifference all pose threats to the kids, who nevertheless prefer this harsh life to going back to their families. Heather, somewhat older, provides some leadership and mothering to the kids.

Runaway (Lara Flynn Boyle) joins leader (Dermot Mulroney) of Hollywood street-hustlers.

Where the Day Takes You summary of box office results, charts and release information and related links.

Where the Day Takes You - King (Dermot Mulroney) is a young man, but he's already a veteran of life on the streets of Los Angeles. The de facto leader...

Overview of Where the Day Takes You, 1991, directed by Marc Rocco, with Dermot Mulroney, Lara Flynn Boyle, Balthazar Getty, at Turner Classic Movies

Where the Day Takes You is a gritty look at the lives of runaways who survive on the streets of Los Angeles. The film is told through the recollections of a parolee (Dermont Mulroney) to his prison psychologist (an uncredited Laura San Giacomo). The movie cuts between his interviews and footage of him on the streets, where he tries to convince his friends and fellow runaways not to sink into a life of drugs and violence. The film's cast includes Kyle MacLachlan, Christian Slater, Sean Astin, Adam Baldwin, Will Smith, and Lara Flynn Boyle.

"I'll bet you can never guess why I ran away from home," says a runaway teenager to her new boyfriend in "Where the Day Takes You." "Sure I can," he says. "You were raped by either your father or your stepfather. Everybody runs away for the same reason." He isn't far off. And the movie, which was shot on and around Hollywood Boulevard, shows a side of runaway kids we haven't seen before: how they form surrogate families in the streets, seeking reassurance and security that they never felt at home. The movie is effective, well-acted and convincing. And that was a surprise for me, since a look at the cast (Dermot Mulroney, Sean Astin, Lara Flynn Boyle, Balthazar Getty and Ricki Lake among them) led me, walking into the theater, to anticipate some sort of Junior Brat Pack caper. Maybe the director, Marc Rocco, is good with actors. Or maybe these actors haven't had this kind of strong material to work with before. Mulroney carries the movie, as the King, leader of a group of runaways who live in a hollowedout cave under the Hollywood Freeway and support themselves by begging, stealing and prostitution. He is not what could be described as a good influence on the kids who join up with him, but he is a steadying presence, and feels genuine responsibility for his "family." Just as they band together for security, he perhaps feels a need to exercise responsibility, to look out for those who are obviously not able to survive by themselves. Many of the other characters are sharply drawn, including Greg, played by Astin, who is powerless over drugs and places himself in one desperate situation after another, finally popping his last balloon in a pathetic exit scene. Getty is very effective in a scene where he tries to be a male prostitute but hates himself for it. And Boyle is good in the somewhat stereotyped role of the pretty newcomer to the group. The screenplay, by Michael Hitchcock, Kurt Voss and Rocco, contains a lot of documentary information about where runaways hang out, why they hate the police, and how they survive in a system that seems set up specifically to crush them. It is not a poetic or pseudo-romantic view of runaway life (which seems like a hell interrupted by occasional laughs), but on the other hand it isn't hysterical, either. It shows how young people need families and will form their own if they are failed by those they were born into. The story is convincing up until the end, which feels manufactured for movie purposes. One of the things it illustrates is that trouble has a way of attracting more trouble; the nature of the law and society is such that these characters cannot exist without breaking laws, whether they intend to or not, and that automatically sets in motion a chain of additional broken laws, including evasion of arrest. An insignificent initial crime can mushroom into a situation of true desperation. Watching "Where the Day Takes You," I was reminded of the 1985 Oscar-nominated documentary "Streetwise," shot among homeless runaways in Seattle. Both films have many of the same qualities, although the documentary pays more attention to the efforts, successful and otherwise, made by social agencies working with street kids. The bottom line is the same: Kids run away, they band with other kids, and society seems organized to destroy them whether or not they're asking for it.

Where the Day Takes You is a 1992 drama film directed by Marc Rocco. The film tells the story of teenage runaways trying to survive on the streets of Los Angeles. The film was nominated for the "Critics Award" at the Deauville Film Festival and won the Golden Space Needle Award at the Seattle International Film Festival.