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Poster for Permanent Record

Permanent Record

High school. Senior year. His suicide shattered their world. Their courage drove them to pick up the pieces.

1988 · 1h 32m · PG-13 Drama
Directed by Marisa Silver

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Overview

David Sinclair seems to have everything going for him: he's smart, musically talented, and very successful. To top off his senior year in high school, his band is trying to get a recording session. Therefore, David's suicide leaves everyone, especially his best friend and bandmate, Chris, with a lot of questions.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
50%
Tomatometer
Rotten

Pic is populated by profoundly unrewarding characters doing and saying utterly uninteresting things.

Variety Staff, Variety
Rotten

A well-intentioned study of high-school kids coping (and not coping) with the pressures of adolescence, its naturalistic style only makes the more overt dramatic elements look forced and cliched.

Tom Charity, Time Out
Rotten

The implacable earnestness laid on by the script, which it took three people to put together, is not relieved by the nonstop songs, from rock-and-roll to Gilbert and Sullivan.

Walter Goodman, New York Times
Rotten

A lot of talented people, ranging from Eraserhead's cinematographer (Frederick Elmes) to Choose Me's costume designer (Tracy Tynan), contributed to this muck.

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
Fresh

To describe the opening scenes makes them seem routine, and yet they captured my attention with an intensity that I still do not understand.

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

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