MY MOVIE SHELF: Say Anything…

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 21 Days to go: 17

Movie #419:  Say Anything…

I think there’s a big part of me that wishes I was Diane Court (Ione Skye) in high school, but I almost definitely wasn’t. Diane was smart — Corey (Lili Taylor) calls her “a brain” — and so was I, but I wasn’t as dedicated as she was. I wasn’t as accomplished. Or focused. Or open with any parent the way Diane is with her father (John Mahoney). I also (I assume) wasn’t secretly desired by half the guys in my senior class, and if I was well it’s too late to speak up now, losers. Of course, that could be the result of the way in which I actually am a lot like Diane, in that nobody really knew me in high school at all, save about two friends. Then again, I didn’t know myself either, so it’s unlikely anyone else would’ve figured it out. I most definitely did not have a Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack), which seems like the best thing about being a Diane Court — a guy who just wants to devote his life to you, to being with you, to making you happy.

The budding and blooming relationship between Diane and Lloyd in Say Anything… is beautiful because of its simplicity. It’s organic and awkward and the two of them just seem to be fumbling through it. She takes a chance on him, mostly because she feels she’s gone her entire high school life without taking any chances at all, and he’s bold enough to ask her in a charming and disarming way. He, meanwhile, is so smitten by her, he’s bowled over by any attention. Even when she thinks she’s blown it by saying something dumb or closed off, he’s grateful to spend another moment with her. This may not be a recipe for a longstanding relationship, and it’ll have to grow and change a lot more if it’s going to last, but at this point in their lives it’s normal and good to be smitten, to be driven by emotion, to think of all the logical reasons why you shouldn’t be with someone, shouldn’t sleep with him, but “[attack] him anyway.” (I LOVE that Diane is the sexual initiator in their relationship.)

Say Anything… is also about letting go of things you’ve clung to your whole life, things that have been part of your identity so long you can hardly imagine yourself without them. The movie approaches this theme two ways, with Corey’s obsession over Joe (Loren Dean) and Diane’s relationship with her father. The Corey and Joe situation is sillier as a plot point, perhaps, with her constant discussion of him and her single-minded song lyrics, but it’s also the more relatable, authentic representation of the teenage experience. We have all either been or known that person who can’t stop talking about their ex, who keeps going back to them, who writes songs or poetry or endless diary entries about them — even Corey’s bedroom graffiti is about Joe — and so we recognize Corey in ourselves and in our friends. We recognize the youth and immaturity in her experience and know it’s something she’s just going to have to grow out of. And, wonderfully, we’re there for the moment. He approaches her, she abandons all her outward hatred to declare her love for him, he proceeds to tell her how he’s totally going to break up with Mimi (Chynna Phillips) before she goes off to college, and something clicks in Corey’s head so she tells him goodbye. I have DEFINITELY been Corey before.

The situation with Diane’s father is more traditional film conflict, but obviously most of us have never discovered our parents are criminals, so in that respect it’s far further out in left field than Corey’s circumstances. However, what the crumbling of that relationship represents in the real world is how all of us at some point — usually sometime in those teenage years — realize our parents are flawed. They don’t have all the answers. They’ve made mistakes. They are very likely still making mistakes. They have ideas about what’s best for you that might not actually be what makes you happy. And that realization can be hard to accept, particularly if you’ve always looked up to one or both of your parents. It can be a crushing blow to come to terms with the fact that they’re trying to figure things out just as much as you are, and that eventually you’re going to have to go out on your own, and find your own way.

My only real complaint about Say Anything… is that Diane doesn’t do for Lloyd the same thing that Lloyd does for Diane — that way he helps her to accept and embrace the emotional side of herself. I would’ve really liked Diane to help Lloyd accept and embrace a more responsible side of himself, so that they balanced each other out more. Then again, Lloyd gets a job teaching kickboxing while they’re still in Seattle, and he’s the calm reassurance she needs on the flight to England, so maybe she’s done that for him after all. Maybe England is where Lloyd figures out what he wants to do and be, beyond “with Diane.” I would watch that movie.

MY MOVIE SHELF: Four Rooms

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 262 Days to go: 258

Movie #115: Four Rooms

In a nutshell, Four Rooms is a fantastic experiment. It consists of four separate vignettes, each written and directed by four different filmmakers, connected simply by the thread that they all take place on New Year’s Eve in the Mon Signor Hotel, Hollywood, where Ted the Bellhop (Tim Roth) is the only one on duty.

Normally, oddly experimental or gimmicky films like this don’t see wide release and, in turn, aren’t seen by wide audiences. But Four Rooms boasts segments by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez (in addition to less well-known Allison Anders and Alexandre Rockwell), plus appearances by Madonna, Lili Taylor, Ione Skye, Antonio Banderas, Bruce Willis, Jennifer Beals, Kathy Griffin and Marisa Tomei, among others. So there’s a bit of a draw to this film.

Each of the four segments are quirky and fun, with Ted being more than a little inconvenienced by each unconventional request, though he also finds himself pretty nicely rewarded in most of them. It’s very interesting to notice the different writing and directing styles evidenced in each separate vignette, how scenes with the same large-scale setting and main character can be still be individualistic, with their own strengths and weaknesses. For my money, the third segment (“The Misbehavers”) is the strongest, the last (“The Man From Hollywood”) is the most astonishing and the most talked-about, the first (“The Missing Ingredient”) is most fun, and the second (“The Wrong Man”) is the darkest and most disturbing.

“The Misbehavers” features a man (Antonio Banderas) and his wife (Tamlyn Tomita) leaving their willfull and spoiled children alone in room 309, with Ted checking in on them. There is drinking, smoking, Salma Hayek on a nudie channel, spontaneous vomit, and a foul-smelling surprise. It’s excellently paced and it builds a lot of tension and suspense.

“The Man From Hollywood” features an unusual bet between friends (Quentin Tarantino and Paul Calderon) that requires a delivery of a block of wood, three nails, a ball of twine, a donut, a club sandwich, and a hatchet. There’s also Tarantino going crazy over the superiority of Cristal and a ranting (and uncredited) Bruce Willis.

“The Missing Ingredient” features a coven of witches that include Madonna, Valeria Golina, Ione Skye, Lili Taylor, Sammi Davis and Alicia Witt. (I am still incredibly upset Alicia Witt’s career never exploded. She was the best, most perfect thing about Cybill.) They have a little magic to undertake, and are in need of Ted’s … services.

“The Wrong Man” is a psychological torture game between combating spouses (David Proval and Jennifer Beals) and any unlucky man who happens to walk through their door. They don’t have any needles, but they do have a big fucking gun.

There are callbacks and running jokes and a pretty hilarious performance by Marisa Tomei as a completely baked party-goer named Margaret, not to mention Tim Roth being swishy and twitchy and completely mercenary with regard to the tasks he is given, which is super fun to watch. Plus the witches cast their spells in rhyme, and Ted is apparently pretty killer in the sack.

It’s not family-friendly in the least, but it’s a great time and I wish filmmakers today were able to stretch themselves in these kinds of unique and interesting ways, because it broadens the possibilities of the art form and allows for more voices in this realm. It’s a valuable film to own and to study and to enjoy. I hope to see more like it one day.