It's been a while since I last saw this one, but it is still one of the better teenage angst films of its time. Chris Makepeace (an actor who is still about but who doesn't seem to have gone too far) plays a new boy at his Chicago high school who is picked on by a gang of bullies led by a very young Matt Dillon. He approaches the most feared boy at the school, Adam Baldwin (not one of the four Baldwin brothers) to protect him; this was Baldwin's first role. I've seen him in various flicks since and his is another whose career has gone nowhere special, but he is excellent here -- and although just eighteen here he looks bigger and older than all of the other teens. He turns out to be something of a pussycat because of a tragic event in his past, but comes through when befriended by Makepeace.
The latter's grandma is played by Ruth Gordon in slightly ditzier mode than usual, and if you look real fast, you can also spot the young Joan Cusack, Jennifer Beals (uncredited) and George Wendt. All in all a satisfying concoction.
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