Tex (1982)

Matt Dillon's considerable talents as a young actor did not go unnoticed by writer/director Tim Hunter, who was the first to give Dillon a complex, mature role as the title character in his screen adaptation of S.E. Hinton's Tex. There's more to the performance than the trademark Dillon impudence: he's allowed to reveal some of the worry and fear behind the character's macho, prankster posturing, and he never becomes maudlin or unconvincing. The film charts a few pivotal weeks in the lives of parentless brothers Tex and Mason (Jim Metzler), and Hunter does away with the sentiment common to Hinton's stories in favor of a gritty, sloppy look uncommon to most Disney productions. Tex would be one of many Hunter films chronicling disaffected teens, from his first produced script, 1979's cautionary tale Over the Edge, to 1987's haunting River's Edge, to many episodes of the popular 1990s television series, Beverly Hills, 90210. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide