Streets (film)

Streets is a 1990 American drama film directed by Katt Shea and starring Christina Applegate and David Mendenhall.

Plot
Dawn, a drug-addicted teen prostitute living on the streets of Los Angeles, and Sy, a teenager with dreams of becoming a rock star, become friends after Sy rescues Dawn from a violent john. Dawn takes Sy under her wing and gives him a guided tour of the seedy underworld of Hollywood.

Cast

 * Christina Applegate as Dawn
 * David Mendenhall as Sy
 * Eb Lottimer as Lumley
 * Jane Chung as Old Bag Woman
 * Starr Andreeff as Policewoman on Horse
 * Alexander Folk as Bagley
 * Kay Lenz as Sargent
 * J Bartell as Officer #1 (as J. Bartell)
 * Paul Ben-Victor as Officer #2
 * Tom Ruben as Officer #3
 * David Lawrence as Plumber
 * Patrick Richwood as Bob
 * Aron Eisenberg as Roach

Production
Katt Shea later recalled: "That was me just exploring the underside…I tend to really like to explore people I don’t know and so I started doing research on the streets and talking to people who lived on the streets. I did a lot of research and they thought I was a homeless person and I hung out with the kids and stuff and then wrote from that research. I knew a girl who was a heroin addict that we based 'Dawn' on her. She lived on the street or sometimes she lived with a very rich boyfriend, which was very very strange." Streets led to Shea being offered to direct the film Poison Ivy.

Reception
Variety wrote, "Despite its B-film framework involving a maniacal killer stalking street kids, Streets transcends its genre with a gritty and affecting portrait of a teenage throwaway."

Home media
Streets was released on VHS in mid 1990 through MGM/UA Home Entertainment. A double feature DVD edition was released in 2011 as part of the Roger Corman's Cult Classics collection, through Shout! Factory.