(See the first three installments.)
Singles (1992)
• I'm calling the movie "weird" to fit in with this random little set of ramblings, but a better word would be "awesome."
• I'm fascinated by movies from the early '90s. It's like somehow the era gets overlooked; it's not recent enough to be culturally relevant, and it lacks the kitsch factor of the '80s. But any movie where they guys and girls both have long hair and ripped jeans is okay by me.
• Singles also is a shameless attempt by writer-director Cameron Crowe to latch onto the Seattle music scene. Pearl Jam plays Matt Dillon's band. It's also got Alice in Chains and Soundgarden. It feels like Crowe bought "Gen X for Dummies" and set about to make a movie. And it'll blow your mind.
• Jeremy Piven has a pretty fantastic cameo as a drugstore cashier, but he's easily topped by two appearances that are far more amazing: (a) Victor Garber, sporting the porniest mustache I've ever seen, and (b) Paul Giamatti playing one half of a young couple shamelessly making out in a coffeeshop. Paul Giamatti. It's worth renting just for that 10 seconds.
• Was Kyra Sedgwick really ever hot enough to play a female romantic lead? She's got a squint horseface and tiny teeth. It's hard to believe no one ever called her the Nibbler.
• The Nibbler hooks up with Campbell Scott, who is probably way too talented to even be in this movie.
• Eric Stoltz as a sarcastic mime. Enough said.
• Whatever happened to Bridget Fonda? She was all over the place 10 years ago, and now nothing.
• This movie is maybe the only time Cameron Crowe wrote a movie without whoring himself out soundtrack-wise. The music is never overdone, and works to complement the scene without overshadowing it. It's completely un-Crowe.
• The Xavier McDaniel fantasy sequence could be one of the funnier things Crowe's ever done.
• Bill Pullman plays a plastic surgeon who's supposed to be 33, though he's clearly 40. And Fonda is 28 and acting 23 and is emotionally 19. And they almost hook up.
Anyway, I'm young, and would love it if anybody else had good suggestions for other good early-'90s Gen X-ish movies, especially ones that have been forgotten. Basically anything with a flannel shirt over a Mossimo T-shirt will work.
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Los Angeles, California I'm a twentysomething white male with ambitions to be a professional film critic and generally spend my days getting paid to watch movies and write about it. I try not to think too hard about how I want to build my life around talking about other people's creations and not mine. A compulsive reader and stubborn cineaste, I take an often contrary stance to my more fundamentalist peers and upbringing by celebrating the pursuit of the good, and the Good, in life, love, art and film. If you watched enough episodes of a few TV shows ("The Hungry and the Hunted," "The Cut Man Cometh," "The Body," "Waiting in the Wings," "Out of Gas," "April is the Cruelest Month," "20 Hours in America," "Colonial Day" for starters), you would understand me completely, and you'd also realize that much of my worldview and philosophical insights are heavily influenced by fictional works/programs, and many of the good things I've said in my life are just a regurgitation of someone else's imaginings. I guess I was made to be a film critic. This Month
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Really Weird Movies, Part 4
Comments
Re: Really Weird Movies, Part 4
by
Kevin Longrie
on Sat 04 Nov 2006 12:07 PM PST | Permanent Link
My favorite part of Singles, no matter how many people say it's corny, is the garage door opener idea. I really like it.
Re: Really Weird Movies, Part 4
by
Sarah
on Sat 04 Nov 2006 12:41 PM PST | Profile | Permanent Link
"Reality Bites." It's probably more well known, and came out two years after "Singles," but it's still great. Everyone loves the "My Sharona" convenience store scene.
Re: Re: Really Weird Movies, Part 4
by
Dan Carlson
on Sat 04 Nov 2006 01:36 PM PST | Profile | Permanent Link
Own it. Steve Zahn is totally underused, though I get the feel his storyline was trimmed, what with Reality Bites existing in a waaaay pre-Brokeback world.
Re: Really Weird Movies, Part 4
by
Kevin Longrie
on Sat 04 Nov 2006 01:45 PM PST | Permanent Link
I know you're aware of Kicking and Screaming, which is great, but also Mr. Jealousy, Baumbach's second is also worth watching.
Re: Really Weird Movies, Part 4
by
Anonymous
on Sat 04 Nov 2006 09:03 PM PST | Permanent Link
Hated this movie but loved the soundtrack. I still listening to it till this day.
Re: Really Weird Movies, Part 4
I thought I was going to get to mention Kicking and Screaming, although it's not really a Gen X film in the sense that they were trying to make a Gen X film like Singles. It play much more like a St. Elmo's Fire type flick or Diner, that just happens to come across as Gen X because that's who the filmakers truly were. I just bought the Criterion release and watched it tonight. I'm kind of weirded out that I read this, actually.
Re: Really Weird Movies, Part 4
by
Amy Splitt
on Wed 08 Nov 2006 01:00 PM PST | Permanent Link
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114095/
Party Girl, starring Parker Posey and a cast of total unknowns. Re: Really Weird Movies, Part 4
by
Anonymous
on Thu 09 Nov 2006 08:06 AM PST | Permanent Link
Wayne's World, my friend
Re: Really Weird Movies, Part 4
by
Anonymous
on Sat 11 Nov 2006 08:05 AM PST | Permanent Link
'Bodies, rest and motion' with Eric Stoltz, Tim Roth, Bridget Fonda and Phoebe Cates...ennui and sex in the desert. See also 'Sleep with Me' with Eric Stoltz (ahem), Craig Sheffer, Meg Tilly, Parker Posey and Joey Lauren Adams. My God, it's *so* early '90's!
Re: Re: Really Weird Movies, Part 4
by
Anonymous
on Sat 11 Nov 2006 08:12 AM PST | Permanent Link
p.s. 'Sleep with me' has that whole Top Gun /Tarantino/Sword fight hilarity
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