Say Anything an endearing 80s artifact

In the hopes that spring is finally upon us, and in the honor of springtime being the time of love and hope and all that crap, I rented the quintessential 80s romance flick Say Anything. Starring a dashing but bumbling young John Cusack and the girl-next-door-on-steroids in Ione Skye, it’s easy to see why Say Anything is such a likeable and lasting film. It’s amusing, entertaining and, ultimately so warm and fuzzy that it’s practically growing fur.

While Better off Dead is easily the best of Cusack’s 80s catalogue, in my estimation, Say Anything is deserving of its memorable status as an iconic teenage love story. This, Cameron Crowe’s first crack as director, sees Lloyd Dobbler, a somewhat neurotic, babbling, kickboxing-obsessed, recent high school graduate going after the girl of his dreams.

Cameron Crowe strikes me as both wildly overrated and still underappreciated. A lot of people talk about him as if he’s some sort of maverick auteur that transcends Hollywood, which certainly isn’t the case; his movies are extremely formulaic and somewhat generic, marked only by a certain, somewhat wholesome sense of style. Yet, because of this, I’m not sure that he’s appreciated for the talented Hollywood writer and director that he is. He certainly doesn’t operate above the studio system, but he works extremely well within it.

Almost Famous is the absolute best example – his semi-autobiographical chronicling of his younger years as a rock critic, which also happens to be perhaps the most rewatchable movie of the past decade. Say Anything isn’t as good, but it’s in the same league, keeping you engaged without really trying, not wasting any scenes or forcing anything at all.

The most notorious scene, of course, is Lloyd holding a boombox above his head to serenade the girl that broke his heart. While a classic moment, to be sure, you should note two things going into the film, lest you be sorely disappointed. 1) The scene lasts maybe 5 seconds and 2) he’s playing a Peter Gabriel song. It’s hard to make Peter Gabriel any cheesier than he already is yet Cameron Crowe manages to pull it off – and it actually works. If that’s not a testament to Cameron Crowe’s ability as a filmmaker, I don’t know what is.