Christian Slater has been involved in some of the more thought-provoking teen movies to venture out of Hollywood, most notably the deliciously black Heathers, and he hardly puts a foot wrong here. He plays a quiet high-school student who metamorphoses into an anarchic radio shock jock, who enrages the authorities but becomes a cult hero to his fellow students. Director Allan Moyle shows an unusually sensitive feel for adolescent angst, Samantha Mathis who went on to co-star with Slater in Broken Arrow is impressive in an early role and the music is a cut above the FM pap that normally inhabits American teen movies.

Mark Hunter, a lonely high school student, uses his shortwave radio to moonlight as the popular pirate DJ "Hard Harry." When his show gets blamed for a teen committing suicide, the students clash with high school faculty and the authorities.