posted by ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
connielane at 08:00pm on 13/06/2005 under movies
connielane at 08:00pm on 13/06/2005 under moviesThis is a bit late, but I was hindered by life stuff today.
Diner
I love movies with strong ensemble casts where no one is really the "star." I also love movies with great dialogue and "casual" conversation (a lot of the dialogue was improvised). Diner has both, and it's one of the great comedies ever (to me). It's one of those great funny movies that knows how to be serious when it needs to be. And the actors were a bunch of up-and-coming stars - Mickey Rourke, Paul Reiser, Steve Guttenberg, Daniel Stern, Tim Daly, Kevin Bacon, and Ellen Barkin.
In a sense, Diner is a guy's movie. It's about a bunch of guys, doing guy things, saying guy things, and just being, you know, guys. The characters are just past college age, new to the real world, and they're all learning to adjust to grown-up life.
A considerable portion of the movie is spent on the conversations these young men have at their favorite hangout - the diner. They go there and stay until 3 or 4 in the morning, talking about life, music, girls, etc. And it's in these scenes that we really get a feel for their characters. Eddie (Guttenberg) is obsessed with football and the Colts - so much so that insists on blue and white for the wedding colors and makes his fiancee take a football test before their wedding. If she fails, the wedding is off. "Boogie" (Rourke) has an increasing gambling debt and tries to pay it off by betting the guys that a certain lady will handle his... equipment. Billy (Daly) struggles with his relationship with his female best friend. Fenwick deals with his brother and tries to woo women. Shrevie (Stern) tries to make his marriage to Beth (Barkin) work. And Modell (Reiser) just wants a roast beef sandwich and a ride home.
Diner is set in Baltimore in the 1950s. And one of the characters, Shrevie, is obsessed with music trivia and has a gargantuan record collection. So you can imagine what a great soundtrack it has. I got it on vinyl a few years ago, and it's awesome - "Ain't Got No Home" is my favorite.
This is just one of those iconic movies that made a mark on a lot on people's adolescence and young adulthoods. Sort of a "Catcher In the Rye" for moviegoers. Eddie and Boogie and the rest of the gang spoke to a generation, and it didn't matter that they were from three decades before. They were dealing with basically the same things that people in their twenties are dealing with now. There have been a lot of movies since Diner opened in 1982 that have tried to deal with that malaise of being out of school, drifting away from old friends and being forced to make real life choices. But none of them (IMO) have been able to come close to the humor and realness of the Diner boys.
And, because I feel like it, I'm going to list some of my favorite Diner quotes:
Modell: This is why you are so nervous all the time. You have like chunks of roast beef in your heart!
Billy: I'll hit you so hard, I'll kill your whole family.
Modell: You know what word I'm not comfortable with? Nuance. It's not a real word. Like gesture. Gesture's a real word. With gesture you know where you stand. But nuance? I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong.
Shrevie: See? You don't ask me things like that, do you? No! You never ask me what's on the flip side.
Beth: No! Because I don't give a s***. Shrevie, who cares about what's on the flip side of the record?
Shrevie: I do! Every one of my records means something! The label, the producer, the year it was made. Who was copying whose style... who's expanding on that, don't you understand? When I listen to my records they take me back to certain points in my life, OK? Just don't touch my records, ever! You! The first time I met you? Modell's sister's high school graduation party, right? 1955. And Ain't That A Shame was playing when I walked in the door!
Diner
I love movies with strong ensemble casts where no one is really the "star." I also love movies with great dialogue and "casual" conversation (a lot of the dialogue was improvised). Diner has both, and it's one of the great comedies ever (to me). It's one of those great funny movies that knows how to be serious when it needs to be. And the actors were a bunch of up-and-coming stars - Mickey Rourke, Paul Reiser, Steve Guttenberg, Daniel Stern, Tim Daly, Kevin Bacon, and Ellen Barkin.
In a sense, Diner is a guy's movie. It's about a bunch of guys, doing guy things, saying guy things, and just being, you know, guys. The characters are just past college age, new to the real world, and they're all learning to adjust to grown-up life.
A considerable portion of the movie is spent on the conversations these young men have at their favorite hangout - the diner. They go there and stay until 3 or 4 in the morning, talking about life, music, girls, etc. And it's in these scenes that we really get a feel for their characters. Eddie (Guttenberg) is obsessed with football and the Colts - so much so that insists on blue and white for the wedding colors and makes his fiancee take a football test before their wedding. If she fails, the wedding is off. "Boogie" (Rourke) has an increasing gambling debt and tries to pay it off by betting the guys that a certain lady will handle his... equipment. Billy (Daly) struggles with his relationship with his female best friend. Fenwick deals with his brother and tries to woo women. Shrevie (Stern) tries to make his marriage to Beth (Barkin) work. And Modell (Reiser) just wants a roast beef sandwich and a ride home.
Diner is set in Baltimore in the 1950s. And one of the characters, Shrevie, is obsessed with music trivia and has a gargantuan record collection. So you can imagine what a great soundtrack it has. I got it on vinyl a few years ago, and it's awesome - "Ain't Got No Home" is my favorite.
This is just one of those iconic movies that made a mark on a lot on people's adolescence and young adulthoods. Sort of a "Catcher In the Rye" for moviegoers. Eddie and Boogie and the rest of the gang spoke to a generation, and it didn't matter that they were from three decades before. They were dealing with basically the same things that people in their twenties are dealing with now. There have been a lot of movies since Diner opened in 1982 that have tried to deal with that malaise of being out of school, drifting away from old friends and being forced to make real life choices. But none of them (IMO) have been able to come close to the humor and realness of the Diner boys.
And, because I feel like it, I'm going to list some of my favorite Diner quotes:
Modell: This is why you are so nervous all the time. You have like chunks of roast beef in your heart!
Billy: I'll hit you so hard, I'll kill your whole family.
Modell: You know what word I'm not comfortable with? Nuance. It's not a real word. Like gesture. Gesture's a real word. With gesture you know where you stand. But nuance? I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong.
Shrevie: See? You don't ask me things like that, do you? No! You never ask me what's on the flip side.
Beth: No! Because I don't give a s***. Shrevie, who cares about what's on the flip side of the record?
Shrevie: I do! Every one of my records means something! The label, the producer, the year it was made. Who was copying whose style... who's expanding on that, don't you understand? When I listen to my records they take me back to certain points in my life, OK? Just don't touch my records, ever! You! The first time I met you? Modell's sister's high school graduation party, right? 1955. And Ain't That A Shame was playing when I walked in the door!
nostalgic
(mystery)
(mystery)
Not St. Elmo's Fire? alkdjf;lafj;lsdfj;asldfj;aslkdfjsdjf
Seriously, I really like this movie too! I live near Baltimore now and am increasingly enamored of the city.
Barry Levinson also filmed another movie I really like, Avalon, in Baltimore, which is obviously about a younger time in growing up and focuses more on family than friends.
John Waters has filmed all of his movies in Baltimore and has said:
"I would never want to live anywhere but Baltimore. You can look far and wide, but you'll never discover a stranger city with such extreme style. It's as if every eccentric in the South decided to move North, ran out of gas in Baltimore, and decided to stay."