Say Anything (1989)

This is one of those movies that no one has seen, or even knows the name of, but everyone knows the famous scene of the movie where John Cusack holds the radio above his head. It is a good movie though, so if you have not seen it, I recommend that you do.

Lloyd Dobbler is an average teenage boy, maybe a bit less than average if truth be told, no foreseeable prospects or future. In his last year of high school, actually, just after convocation, he declares to his friends that he is going to ask out the valedictorian, the smartest girl in school, Diane Court. His friends warn him away from this because he and Diane movie in different social circles, and there's no way she would give him a chance. They also tell him that he's such a nice guy, and they don't want him to get hurt. He of course disregards this advice and calls her up to invite her to a house party. Initially, Diane is not taken with Lloyd, but on a whim, and because she feels like she's studied so hard throughout the year that she has no social life, she decides to go. Things go quite well at the party for Lloyd, and he and Diane start dating. He is obsessed with her, and she seems to like him also, but not as much. Things seems to be going well, until Diane's father gets nervous that Diane's interest in Lloyd will interfere with the overseas scholarship she's won. Her father is also facing a very troubling audit, and he's being accused of money laundering, and Diane is fighting hard to prove her father innocent, and generally dealing with the stress her father is placing on her and the contradicting emotions she feels for Lloyd and her father. She eventually breaks up with Lloyd for her father, and Lloyd is left with the decision to let her go, or to try to win her back. And Diane is faced with choosing between her father and Lloyd. What will happen to them??!

This is a cute movie. One of the things I noted about it right away was that it's a story about true love in a world where true love is rarely found. All of the people in Lloyd's life are either in bad relationships, or were. His sister (played by his real life sister, uncredited) whom he lives with was left with a child by her boyfriend. His parents are non-existent, his best friend is always pining after a guy who cheated on her and broke up with her, and non-essential characters are constantly breaking up or fighting if they're in a relationship, or sadly alone and lamenting the idea of relationships. So Lloyd is fighting everything he knows innately about relationships to follow his heart and pursue Diane and what he believes is true love.

Another theme of the movie seems to be the value of honesty in relationships. The title of the movie is Say Anything, and this is how Diane is. She is supremely honest, both because of personality and because of her self-imposed exile from teenaged drama in favour of her studies. So she hasn't learned to lie to her dad about anything, or bend the truth to make a situation seem to be in her favour, and she doesn't try to manipulate Lloyd in any way either. As the movie progresses, she discovers that she can't always say anything she wants to anyone, because the trust she places in people may not be deserved. Lloyd has the same kind of naiveté about Diane. He completely opens himself to her, but again, does so in ignorance and is then surprised when his love isn't rewarded or returned as he wants it to be. At the same time however, though both of these characters were burned by their honesty and trust, the fact that they both possess those qualities allowed them to connect with each other, because to truly connect with a person, you have to make yourself somewhat vulnerable to them. And in the deepest relationships, you should indeed be able to say anything to the other person and expect them to return that trust and honesty.

There are a lot of 'quotables' in this movie, but one of my favourites are when Lloyd is talking to Diane's father about what he doesn't want to do when he grows up "I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that." For a while I felt this way and it always resonated with me. And that kind of encapsulates Lloyd. He's not a cookie cutter high schooler, and he doesn't want to be.

Though this is a lesser known 80's flick, it's just as good as 16 Candles or Pretty in Pink and all of those. The characters are real and endearing, and it's refreshing to have a romance movie not just be about romance, because it never is in real life. It's a great movie, and you should watch it if you haven't yet done so.

Killer Workout/ Aerobicide (1986)

This is one of those movies that's so bad it's almost good. The story is about this girl named Valerie, who after getting seriously burned all over her body in a freak tanning bed accident, changes her name to Rhonda and opens up a workout facility. All seems to be going well until her aerobic clients start getting mysteriously killed off. A lieutenant from out-of-town starts investigating the case eventually starts to suspect Rhonda is responsible for the killings, but various incidents interfere with her arrest. At the end of the movie the killer walks free.

The story wasn't so bad. It actually sounded kind of humorous, and who doesn't like a cheesy slasher from the 80's. I think that only especially bad thing in the film was the lieutenant's acting. He was always properly scowling and suspicious, like a good one-dimensional cop should be, but he'd make these eye-rollingly worthy jumps of logic. When he suspects someone as the killer you will know because he will actually start telling that person in a conspiratorial way that he or she is guilty. The funniest of these are when he starts suspecting Rhonda and find out that she was badly burned. He then says to her that she was the killer because she had to see all of these beautiful bodies when she would always have to hide her own, and that the sight of her body would make any man sick to his stomach. He doesn't have any evidence (and never does in any of his accusations) but because he's definite that anyone that ugly would never be able to live happily he arrests her. Also funny on her part, when he does accuse her she gets mad and flashes him her burnt chest screaming 'is this what you wanted to see?'. But yes, poorly written and acted.

Besides the poor dialogue there were basically two components to this movie, people getting killed by a hand without a body, and zooming in on the butts and breasts of the girls while they're doing their workouts in revealing clothing. Definitely not a classic of its time, but it is pretty fun to watch if you're over the age of majority.

Faeries (1981)

Faeries is a very short movie, not even half an hour, and is based on Brian Froud's book Faeries. The story is about a youth named Oisin who is out on a hunt with the men to bring in some game for his birthday feast, but they have been unlucky are just about to give up and go home empty-handed. Just as the men are lamenting at even bringing the boy, a deer runs by Oisin and his horse chases it off into the forest. The deer stops to graze in a ring of mushrooms and just as Oisin is about to shoot it, it turns into a lovely young woman who states that she is Princess Niamh of the faeries. The princess takes Oisin with her to fairyland because they are in trouble. The king was showing off his magical ability and made his shadow come alive, but over time the shadow grew more powerful and began sucking power out of the king. The shadow took over most of the faerie realm with it's darkness (which weakens the powers of the seelie court) and was going to go after the princess next. It is of course up to Oisin and his assigned companion Puck to go after the monster in it's castle and defeat it, bringing peace to faerie realm once again.

The movie was decently done. Even though it was a short film it felt like a feature-length film. The animation of the faeries was very Froud like, which was interesting to see applied in a cartoon and was pretty accurate in regards to some creatures. Certain poses of some of the faeries looked like they came right out of the book. There were some cheesy lines and a few easy way outs that will have you rolling your eyes, but hey, it's the 80's. Overall worth while.