Say Anything Details

1989

Rated:
70
from 5493 members

Starring	John Cusack, Joan Cusack, Ione Skye, John Mahoney
Director	Cameron Crowe
Genres	Drama

Say Anything

In Cameron Crowe's directorial debut, John Cusack plays Lloyd Dobler--an average guy with a penchant for kickboxing. There is only one thing that all-around nice guy Lloyd wants for his high school graduation--a date with beautiful valedictorian Diane Court (Ione Skye). Lloyd's dream comes true when Diane accepts his invitation to a graduation party. Diane falls for Lloyd, whose goal is to spend as much time with her as possible. Their budding romance is put to the test when Diane has to choose between pursuing her academic dreams and spending time with him. John Mahoney is first-rate as Diane's father, a single parent who wants only the best for his brilliant daughter but who harbors a serious secret that the IRS is investigating. Like John Hughes's classic films of the 1980s (PRETTY IN PINK, THE BREAKFAST CLUB) that dealt with the trials and tribulations of being a teenager, Crowe's intelligent script and film cut through stereotypes and portray teenagers as real people rather than caricatures.

Starring	John Cusack, Joan Cusack, Ione Skye, John Mahoney, Lois Chiles
Director	Cameron Crowe
Studio	20TH CENTURY FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Run time	DVD: 1 hr 36 mins
Certificate
Collections	100 Eighties Greats, 100 Rom-Coms
Genres	Drama
Language	DVD: English
Hearing-impaired	English
Subtitles	DVD: Danish, English, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
Released	DVD: 07 Oct 2002 Production year: 1989
Format	DVD

Critics' reviews (2) of Say Anything
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Not deemed worthy of a UK cinema release, this little gem stems from the pen of the author of Fast Times at Ridgemont High and is a cleverly formatted teenage romance in which nothing is quite as it seems. John Cusack stars (and his sister Joan guests, playing his character's sister) as an underachieving student who falls for Ione Skye, “Miss Priss”, the brain of the class, but meets opposition from her divorced dad (the excellent John Mahoney). Director Cameron Crowe continued his studies of Seattle courtship in 1992 with the beguiling Singles and has proved one of the more talented of the slacker generation of new directors.
- Radio Times
- Posted 29 Jan 2006
This product of the factory of youth, written and directed by first-timer Cameron Crowe, sports the intelligence and... read more on Time Out
- Time Out
- Posted 04 Nov 2008
Most helpful member's review of Say Anything
View all
15 out of 15 people found this review helpful

[Highly rated reviewer]

Say Anything

Boy (Cusack) meets Girl (Skye). Boy and Girl fall in love. Girl gets scholarship to England. Girl's Father (Mahoney) makes her feel guilty about spending time with Boy. Boy loses Girl. Boy plays Peter Gabriel's In Your Eyes outside Girls window. Can he get her back?

'...She gave me a pen. I gave her my heart and she gave me a pen'. Almost all you need to know about this most atypical of teen movies is in that line, the emotion, the offbeat humour and the brilliant, brilliant dialogue come together perfectly in that moment to make it the most memorable line in a film packed with them. It's no surprise that the chief asset of Say Anything is its dialogue as it is the directorial debut of Cameron Crowe. Crowe became a journalist for Rolling Stone at just 15, in his early 20s he returned to high school and wrote the book Fast Times At Ridgemont High before having his first experience with film by writing a screenplay based on that book. 7 years later he produced this, set in the same world but with a totally different tone and style Say Anything is a sign that Cameron Crowe grew up in those 7 years.

Crowe's greatest strength as a writer has always been in creating complex, individual characters and here he does some of his best work in that respect. Lloyd Dobler (Cusack) is a million miles from the stereotypical guy of teen movies (as his friend Corey (Taylor) says to him: Be a man, don't be a guy'). He is intelligent, thoughtful, funny and seems to have it all worked out. One does wonder where Lloyd might have ended up though since kickboxing proved not to be the sport of the future as he hopes. What defines Lloyd though is his feelings for Diane (Skye) as evidenced by what he says to her father at the end of the film '...Cause I figured out what I really want to do with my life, what I want to do for a living is I want to be with your daughter. I'm good at it.' I've heard many girls name Lloyd as an ideal boyfriend and that is a huge achievement on Crowe's part. John Cusack has, to some degree, played Lloyd ever since, there is a lot of the cynical side of the character in his portrayal of Rob Gordon in High Fidelity. He should not complain though, this is an iconic part and he does it full justice with a subtle performance that is still the best of his career almost 14 years on.

Ione Skye matches Cusack at every turn with a charming performance as Crowe's 'golden girl' Diane Court ' A brain. Trapped in the body of a game-show hostess' according to Lloyd's friends. Its difficult to talk about either Cusack or Skye giving performances because they are so convincing that rather than thinking what great performances they are giving you simply watch the characters. It is easy to see why Lloyd and Diane are attracted to one another, even leaving aside Skye's classical beauty.

I can't possibly talk about this film and not mention music. One piece in particular, perhaps the best use of music in cinema history. The moment (Illustrated on all the posters for the film) when Lloyd stands outside Diane's window, holding a stereo above his head. Peter Gabriel's beautiful song In Your Eyes playing at full volume. That scene tells you everything about how the characters are feeling without spending pages and pages of dialogue to do it.

There isn't a bad performance in the film. Eric Stoltz pops up in a cameo as Valhere (a role he reprised in Jerry Maguire) and puts in an entertaining, if very broad, comic performance. Lilli Taylor excels as the girl who has written more than 50 songs about her ex boyfriend and John Mahoney proves he is as good at drama as his is at comedy (he plays Martin on Frasier). Joan Cusack, John's sister, in a stroke of (now endlessly repeated) casting genius plays Lloyd's sister.

It is obvious that this film was made by a debuting director, not that there is anything wrong with how it is shot, just that all the camera does most of the time is capture the action, rather than draw it. In a film like this though Crowe doesn't need flashy camera work and special effects he just needs to get his wonderful script up on screen and does so perfectly well.

This is a brilliant film, ludicrously classified 15 and perfectly suitable for younger people. A perfect first date film (and if your date doesn’t like it… don’t bother with a second).
- - SAI81 from Tonbridge
  - Posted 14 Mar 2007 12:15
Most recent members' review of Say Anything
View all
15 out of 15 people found this review helpful

[Highly rated reviewer]

Say Anything

Boy (Cusack) meets Girl (Skye). Boy and Girl fall in love. Girl gets scholarship to England. Girl's Father (Mahoney) makes her feel guilty about spending time with Boy. Boy loses Girl. Boy plays Peter Gabriel's In Your Eyes outside Girls window. Can he get her back?

'...She gave me a pen. I gave her my heart and she gave me a pen'. Almost all you need to know about this most atypical of teen movies is in that line, the emotion, the offbeat humour and the brilliant, brilliant dialogue come together perfectly in that moment to make it the most memorable line in a film packed with them. It's no surprise that the chief asset of Say Anything is its dialogue as it is the directorial debut of Cameron Crowe. Crowe became a journalist for Rolling Stone at just 15, in his early 20s he returned to high school and wrote the book Fast Times At Ridgemont High before having his first experience with film by writing a screenplay based on that book. 7 years later he produced this, set in the same world but with a totally different tone and style Say Anything is a sign that Cameron Crowe grew up in those 7 years.

Crowe's greatest strength as a writer has always been in creating complex, individual characters and here he does some of his best work in that respect. Lloyd Dobler (Cusack) is a million miles from the stereotypical guy of teen movies (as his friend Corey (Taylor) says to him: Be a man, don't be a guy'). He is intelligent, thoughtful, funny and seems to have it all worked out. One does wonder where Lloyd might have ended up though since kickboxing proved not to be the sport of the future as he hopes. What defines Lloyd though is his feelings for Diane (Skye) as evidenced by what he says to her father at the end of the film '...Cause I figured out what I really want to do with my life, what I want to do for a living is I want to be with your daughter. I'm good at it.' I've heard many girls name Lloyd as an ideal boyfriend and that is a huge achievement on Crowe's part. John Cusack has, to some degree, played Lloyd ever since, there is a lot of the cynical side of the character in his portrayal of Rob Gordon in High Fidelity. He should not complain though, this is an iconic part and he does it full justice with a subtle performance that is still the best of his career almost 14 years on.

Ione Skye matches Cusack at every turn with a charming performance as Crowe's 'golden girl' Diane Court ' A brain. Trapped in the body of a game-show hostess' according to Lloyd's friends. Its difficult to talk about either Cusack or Skye giving performances because they are so convincing that rather than thinking what great performances they are giving you simply watch the characters. It is easy to see why Lloyd and Diane are attracted to one another, even leaving aside Skye's classical beauty.

I can't possibly talk about this film and not mention music. One piece in particular, perhaps the best use of music in cinema history. The moment (Illustrated on all the posters for the film) when Lloyd stands outside Diane's window, holding a stereo above his head. Peter Gabriel's beautiful song In Your Eyes playing at full volume. That scene tells you everything about how the characters are feeling without spending pages and pages of dialogue to do it.

There isn't a bad performance in the film. Eric Stoltz pops up in a cameo as Valhere (a role he reprised in Jerry Maguire) and puts in an entertaining, if very broad, comic performance. Lilli Taylor excels as the girl who has written more than 50 songs about her ex boyfriend and John Mahoney proves he is as good at drama as his is at comedy (he plays Martin on Frasier). Joan Cusack, John's sister, in a stroke of (now endlessly repeated) casting genius plays Lloyd's sister.

It is obvious that this film was made by a debuting director, not that there is anything wrong with how it is shot, just that all the camera does most of the time is capture the action, rather than draw it. In a film like this though Crowe doesn't need flashy camera work and special effects he just needs to get his wonderful script up on screen and does so perfectly well.

This is a brilliant film, ludicrously classified 15 and perfectly suitable for younger people. A perfect first date film (and if your date doesn’t like it… don’t bother with a second).
- - SAI81 from Tonbridge
  - Posted 14 Mar 2007 12:15
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