Cameron Crowe’s 1989 directorial debut Say Anything was a “right place, right time” film for me. When I really started to delve into film, I would devour DVDs over the course of a summer. I had the routine of my days down to a science. In the morning I would wake up, ride my bike twenty minutes across big, busy streets to Blockbuster, rent two movies, bike back to my house, watch them both, ride back to Blockbuster after dinner, rent another two movies, bike back, and watch the next two. Unless I hung out with a friend, I could get through four movies a day.
At first I watched as many films on AFI’s 100 greatest films I could find, but then I discovered Roger Ebert’s website. Every couple weeks Ebert writes a “Great Movie” column that appears in the Sunday edition of the Chicago Sun-Times that details his reactions to a film he considers to be among the greatest ever made, in no particular order. I bought the collections of his essays as they were published, and began watching my through them. Somewhere during my junior year of high school, I happened upon Say Anything.
Without being too specific, the story involves Lloyd Dobbler (John Cusack), a recent high school graduate in Seattle with no foreseeable career or college prospects living with his sister Constance (Joan Cusack), having a summer relationship with the valedictorian of his class Diane Court (Ione Skye). Their relationship blooms despite the misgivings of Diane’s single father James (John Mahoney), who runs senior homes under investigation from the FBI, and wants his daughter to leave on a scholarship to study in England with no strings attached.
I could go on and on about the characters: Lloyd’s friends Corey and DC, Diane’s mother, Joe the popular kid from their high school class, and many more. Crowe has a gift for capturing voices; he’s always been an extremely talented writer – he proved it years earlier with the classic comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High. The story progresses on so many levels, shifting from Lloyd and Diane’s blooming relationship to Diane and James’ trust issues, James and Lloyd’s disagreements on what is best for Diane, and the impending investigation of the FBI into James’ taxes.
Ignoring the quality of the film as a romance, family drama, and witty comedy, I connect with this film in ways that no other film I have ever seen can ever come close. I see myself in every single tic of Lloyd Dobbler. Take one early scene – Lloyd is calling Diane for the first time in the bathroom of his sister’s apartment. He dials six digits of her phone number, pauses to fix his hair in the bathroom mirror, and then dials the seventh digit. He checks in on Diane when they get separated at a graduation party. He talks to himself as he drives in his car. He is reassuring about fears of flying. His emotional trajectory during his relationship with Diane mirrors emotions I felt exactly. It is really hard not to read the central thrust of the story as anything but the relationship between Diane and her father, with the main conflict consisting of the outcome of the FBI investigation, but Lloyd Dobbler is my hero. I own a full length raincoat because of this movie. I quote this move with reckless abandon. I learned to grow up in my relationships from this movie. Too much of my life depends upon the lessons I have taken away from watching this film. There was a time during the summer after my senior year where the film became a bedtime story – I watched it every night before I went to sleep, finding new nuances, new interpretations, new nuggets of truth to take away from a truly affecting and brilliant film.
It has more romantic truth and more honest depictions of a relationship than the entirety of Meg Ryan’s career (at this juncture I apologize to my childhood friend Garrett for taking a far-too-easy swipe at Ms. Ryan – he is a huge fan). I feel as though I can point out exactly what relationship corresponds to which moment of utter embarrassment, despair, or joy. The infamous boombox scene shown in the picture at the top is perhaps the least truthfully romantic moment in the film.
There are too many things left unsaid about a movie I love so dearly. The comic moments of graduation, their party, the Gas N Sip, their first time, the Pen, a dinner party with the Courts, a bit part played by Jeremy Piven, and the epically satisfying ending are all too wonderful to describe without seeing the film. I essentially recreate my own film commentary every time I watch the movie. Please, do yourself a favor and love a film as much as I love Say Anything, and give it a watch for me. It’s on Netflix, in your local Blockbuster, or somewhere in a friend’s DVD collection. Find it, watch it, tell me what you think, and share with me the film that makes you want to talk this.
