Cameron Crowe’s directorial debut is a great Valentine’s Day movie. We all know relationships can be fun, happy, sad and are filled with ups, downs, laughs and tears. This movie has it all. “Say Anything” would make John Cusack (”High
Cameron Crowe’s directorial debut is a great Valentine’s Day movie. We all know relationships can be fun, happy, sad and are filled with ups, downs, laughs and tears. This movie has it all. “Say Anything” would make John Cusack (”High Fidelity”) a movie star. This film is magical, from the soul of a truthful writer over-flowing with passion that only a first time director could bring to the table.
Crowe lived every filmmakers dream with “Say Anything” he had one of Hollywood’s most succesful film and television Producer/Directors James L. Brooks backing him up.
Brooks is most well known for creating “The Simpsons” and for winning three Oscars for the 1983 tear-jerker “Terms of Endearment” (starring Jack Nicholson). It would be Brooks that had the power to keep the studio away so Crowe could fully realize a personal vision of his wonderful, beautiful coming of age story.
The movie begins with Lloyd Dobbler (Cusack) sitting with his female friend Corey (Lilli Taylor, HBO’s “Six Feet Under”) discussing Lloyd’s one dream, the main dream of most high school boys: get the girl no one thinks they can have.
This is where the movie becomes truly original. The boy gets the girl. The beautiful Dianne Court (played perfectly by Ione Skye) is the valedictorian and has no clue who Lloyd is. Diane goes about her life helping her Dad (John Mahoney of NBC’s “Frasier”) with his home for the elderly.
Lloyd decides to do what no guy ever does (at age 17); he decides he’s going to seize the moment and get a date with Dianne.
Now, today being Valentine’s Day it is important to remember there are two sides to love. This movie is not about the guy scoring the girl or the girl falling for the “so-called loser.” It’s a movie about people, and the fact that the un-popular and popular have the same fears, feelings, hopes and even dreams.
The movie created the template for almost every teen romantic comedy we’ve seen in the last 20 years. Crowe brought his usual ‘fly on the wall’ observations, drawing out every character to exact detail.
In “Say Anything” we know every character in the film. We relate to Lloyd’s insecurities, we sympathize with Dianne’s tough choices (don’t want to spoil plot) and we feel for the heart-break that Corey (Lloyd’s friend) goes through (again, no spoiling the plot).
I selected this film, because it works if you have a sweetheart and want to grab a DVD. It gives anyone hope who feels they might not be able to get that one phone number they want and it even provides therapy if you don’t have a Valentine. The film is exactly what dating, love and life is. The bitter and the sweet.
Crowe’s work is about the small moments and this movie is a small moment in cinematic history when a youthful director got to tell his story with as much creative control as a first-time filmmaker could get.
