Say Anything

Say Anything is a film that doesn't come up so often among my friends. I actually wouldn't be surprised if I learned that some of them had also never seen it. And really, maybe the only reason it seemed like one I needed to catch up with is because of that one scene. You know it. The one where John Cusack holds the ghetto blaster above his head in the street below Ione Skye's bedroom, resorting to anything he can think of to make her understand how he feels. Ive seen it referenced and parodied time and again. It turns out, in the actual movie, that scene feels like a very small part of the story.

I'd say this film definitely fits in the "teen romance" genre. But it doesn't feel like the typical movies of that type that have poured over us in the last twenty years. Say Anything was a cut above. And while the style was a bit dated the movie holds up well after two decades.

What struck me the most was how believable it was. Teen movies (and John Cusack movies in general for tha matter) tend to force you to stretch your limits of disbelief. Think about Better Off Dead, One Crazy Summer, American Pie. All great movies, and all good examples of "teen movies". But I don't think any of them come close to the reality portrayed by Say Anything.

Sure, John Cusack maybe just thinks he's in love. Maybe he's too young to have a proper frame of reference. And ditto for Ione Skye. But I never once questioned the actions they took, never once thought, "come on, he'd never do that." Everyone in the film was true to their character, even if their character was an oddball teenager, and I liked that.

I would definitely recommend this movie.

The Lost Boys

I've been meaning to watch this movie for a long time. It comes up in conversation fairly frequently, so it has usually been near the top of my list. I remember around when this movie came out, seeing it in the video store and all, and it looked scary, of course. It looked like the kind of thing I had no business watching, and certainly wouldn't have gone over well at home.

But look at it now. It has the two Corey's in it, as well as Kiefer Sutherland. And of course Jason Patric. Plus the idea of a group of teenage vampires has a certain appeal all its own. Of course I'll never know how this movie "holds up" over time, since I never saw it until more than twenty years after its release. But how well did it live up to my impression of it?

Wikipedia describes The Lost Boys as a "horror" movie, while IMDb lists "comedy, fantasy, horror, thriller" under genre. The horror tag always places my expectations at a certain level, typically making me look for something with some edge. Typically this is not the case. Because I didn't watch horror movies when I was younger I usually don't have the right impression of the genre. Even with that in mind, though, I think The Lost Boys is better described by IMDb's genre listings, with emphasis on the "comedy".

I'd like to state here that I did enjoy the movie, and thought it was pretty good. But there was far too much lighthearted comedy, mostly between Corey Haim and the two comic book kids (Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander). Their exchanges were funny, and when I was 12 they probably wouldn't have taken any of the awesomeness out of this movie. But now if you add the grandfathers weird aged hippiness to the equation it definitely makes the picture lean toward the comical side.

All in all it's interesting for me to watch a movie like The Lost Boys now. I get a sense like I've just been away for a week and now that I've returned someone has told me a new joke, but all my friends have already heard it and been telling it, and have put their own twists on it. And I'm unable to catch up so I basically smile and nod. I get why the movie was good, I'm just not sure I'll ever understand its "awesomeness".