Say Anything… (1989/Fox Blu-ray)
Picture: B
Sound: B Extras: B Film: B
Though I was not certain whether Cameron Crowe could
sustain a directing career (he has to some extent, but only one out of every
three films are any good), I remember when Say
Anything… (1989) arrived and did not do well, though I liked it very
much. I knew it was something special,
yet one person in the industry (who barely works in it) told me it was “nothing special” (probably because that
person’s definition of special only applied to hits) and acted like I did not
know what I was talking about. Two
decades later, I am more than vindicated.
In his best film to date, John Cusack is Lloyd Dobler, a
really good hearted guy who thinks (in the funniest thing since Peppermint
Patty told us back in 1975 that Motocross would be the next big thing and she
was right) that he believes kickboxing is the next big thing (he was close; it
turned out to be mixed martial arts) and intends to risk his future on it. He is a good family guy and is good with
kids, but when he starts to fall for Dian
Court (Ione Skye), he decides to add her to his
future, no matter how much money her family has or how little her father (John
Mahoney) likes him. But will it happen?
In one of the rare times he was able to pull it off, Crowe
(who also wrote the script) is able to make this seem very real and palpable,
the interaction between the characters and it is a rare, authentic piece of the
1980s that does not condescend and was recently affirmed by Greg Mottola’s Adventureland (reviewed elsewhere on
this site) as honest portraits of the time.
Cusack and Skye have some great chemistry and the film is still
underrated after all of these years.
Fortunately, Fox has issued a Blu-ray worthy of the film.
Also good here are Lili Taylor before becoming a huge
independent acting success, Amy Brooks, Jason Gould, Loren Dean, Jeremy Piven,
Bebe Neuwirth,, Eric Stoltz, Philip Baker Hall, Chynna Phillips and Don “The
Dragon” Wilson among others (Joan Cusack, Lois Chiles, Dan Castellaneta and
Cameron’s mom Alice Marie Crowe go uncredited) in this classic teen comedy
about what to do in the adult world when High School is over. So much has changed for the worst since, but
some things remain the same and because of this, Say Anything… is a classic that deserves revisionist thinking to
its advantage.
The 1080p 1.85 X 1 AVC @ 28 MBPS digital High Definition
image is a little soft and grainy, but for a lower budget film of the time,
looks good and the great Director of Photography Laszlo Kovacs, A.S.C., delivers
what turned out to be his last great outdoor shoot from a man whose location
work is some of the greatest in cinema history, especially for comedies like Targets, Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces,
What’s Up Doc?, King Of Marvin Gardens, Paper
Moon and Shampoo. Note how interiors have the same life as
exteriors. He invented that approach and
could put it on screen, giving film a new life it did not have before. The DTS-HD Master Audio (MA) lossless 5.1 is
the best that can be expected from a film issued in the older Dolby analog
theatrical A-type sound with some distortion and sonic limits throughout that
make this sound like a product of its time, no matter how good the sound people
recorded the sound. The lossless format
shows the limits of the recording, but is better than the Dolby Digital 2.0
Stereo with Pro Logic surrounds also included here. The use of hit songs are great and the score
by Anne Dudley and Richard Gibbs is a plus.
Extras include stills, a Vintage Featurette, feature
length audio commentary by Crowe, Cusack & Skye, interview with Crowe on
camera, To Know Say Anything… Is To Love
It! trivia track, original theatrical trailers & TV spots, two
interesting making-of featurettes (I Love
Say Anything… and An Iconic Film
Revisited, Say Anything… 20 Years Later), 13 Extended Scenes, 5 Alternate
Scenes and 10 Deleted Scenes.
- Nicholas Sheffo
