Where the Day Takes You

As fast and exciting as it is, there's no gratuitous MTV razzle-dazzle in Where the Day Takes You. Virtually every choice made - from the shrewd selection of the music to the always-original camera set-ups to the subtly cumulative pacing of the sequences - is indispensable to the film's vision and gives evidence of the skilled hand of a born filmmaker. [11 Sep 1992]

Aside from one slow-motion sequence, the film treats its subject with few commercial concessions, so one hopes that the horrible and decidedly unmemorable title won’t keep people away; this may be the best movie about disaffected youth since River’s Edge and Pump Up the Volume. Read full review

This is Rebel Without a Cause without the grown-ups and without boundaries, transposed to a world of hard drugs, petty crime, hand-to-mouth existence and hopes that somehow will not die. Read full review

The movie is effective, well-acted and convincing. Read full review

By showing us the human side of poverty, Where the Day Takes You proves that a society is best judged by the treatment of its least fortunate members. [11 Sep 1992, p.21]

Blessed with an ensemble cast of young actors without Brat Pack pretensions, Where the Day Takes You is often so authentic in its depiction of street life that you'll find yourself flinching, a response undoubtedly intended to result in a little consciousness-raising. Read full review

Marc Rocco directs with a little more passion than one might expect from the perpetrator of 1989's dreadful Dream a Little Dream. Yet the ultimate result - respectable, but no big deal - is an odd mix of the sick and the slick. [11 Sep 1992, p.8D]