I'm not big on teenage angst films because those years are way behind me now. But this picture surprised me in that it seemed more realistic and credible than a lot of stories that feature flashy characters and over the top situations. Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) and Diane Court (Ione Skye) were fairly straight, normal looking high school graduates whose career paths might have gone in entirely different directions if Lloyd hadn't summoned up the courage to ask her out on a date. The story points out the varying misperceptions high school students harbor about others who aren't like them, and it was commendable how the all-night party gave Diane an opportunity to feel welcomed by students she otherwise might not even known had existed. There was a rather unforced error in the script though regarding Diane's winning the Reed Scholarship. Her father (John Mahoney) learned about it via a phone call, and rushed over to the nursing home to tell her about it. However later on, when Lloyd spoke to her on the phone to congratulate her, he said he read about it in the newspaper. That seemed like a pretty big goof to go unnoticed by the film makers.Anyway, as far as romantic comedies go, this was more than tolerable. Not being part of the target audience, I didn't feel embarrassed by the picture the way one gets watching a picture like "There's Something About Mary" for example. One might even go so far as to call this a teen flick for grown-ups.

My favorite part about "Say Anything..." is how it treats it's characters. They feel genuine, like real people, not like archetypes like in most teen movies (I love "The Breakfast Club", but literally every character in that movie is an archetype). There is no nerd or jock character, and their dialogue doesn't feel like movie dialogue. The chemistry between the characters is (intentionally) awkward at first, but as they come to know each other better it becomes more relaxed and natural. Lloyd is not a perfect guy, he gets easily anxious, isn't very smart, and has absolutely no idea where he is going in life (but he doesn't seem to care). But he also has good intentions and is easy to like. Diane is VERY connected to her dad, and her dad try's to plan out her life for he because he "wants her to have everything". But this results in her not really having much of a social life, which pretty much leads to her decision to go to the party on the night of their graduation with Lloyd. At first she doesn't like Lloyd, and it seems she even thinks about ditching him at one point, but from talking to one of Lloyd's best friends she decides to give him a chance.All of the characters in this movie end up learning one thing: no matter how much you plan for something, a simple feeling that you have for someone can completely change it, so really, you can't plan for anything. Diane's dad, James, is arrested later in the movie for essentially stealing money from people, and his plan to raise money for when his daughter comes back from England is completely foiled. Even though Diane thinks it's best for her not to be with Lloyd, she inevitably comes back to him. Lloyd has the easiest time adjusting, because he had no preconceived plans. He simply focuses on the moment and I think thats the lesson of this movie. No matter how much you plan for your life, anything can swoop in and change that plan at any moment, so we might as well just stay closest to the people we care about and just worry about things as they come. And the closet we get to realizing that, the happier everyone's lives will be.

Say Anything (1989): Dir: Cameron Crowe / Cast: John Cusack, Ione Skye, John Mahoney, Lili Taylor, Joan Cusack: In the dusk of a decade comes one of the best teen romances ever filmed. Cameron Crowe's observant teen portrayals involves honesty and communication. It stars John Cusack as a high school graduate who makes cash teaching kick boxing, and lives with his sister, herself a mother. Ignoring any career prospects, he sets his sights on a brainy valedictorian, played by Ione Skye who is set to fly to England with a scholarship. She is asked out via phone by Cusack, whom she vaguely remembers, but her acceptance leads to a romance, security and freedom she never knew, even during a drunken party. Her parents are divorced and she lives with her father, played by John Mahoney, who runs a nursing home where he is investigated on charges of pocketing the cash of those in his care. The screenplay has funny moments where Cusack expresses himself as he does, but the serious undertones are convicting with solid performances by all three principal actors as well as Lili Taylor as Cusack's love sick friend who once attempted suicide. Now she writes songs about the guy who dumped her. Joan Cusack plays John's sister, which plays in effect as real siblings. Crowe is an expert observer of relationships, both young and old and the bonds that remain even after devastation. Score: 10 / 10

No I wasn't born in the early 80s. I'm a guy that's 38 and I was born in 1975. In 1989 I remember being so excited for movies that year. Batman, Karate Kid Part III, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Ghostbuster 2, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, License to Kill, Back to the Future Part II, Christmas Vacation, The Wizard, there were many movies that year I really anticipated. My friends and I spent hours on our Nintendo, Sega and even that ditzy early Gameboy system.Say Anything..., was not one of the movies I looked forward to or even remember hearing about. I don't even remember any of my friends talking about this flick. Now granted I was a young kid, but not a little kid, I was in 8th grade and 13 through most of the year, turned 14 in December. I started high school in the fall of 1989 and I don't even remember *anyone* ahead of me talking about this movie. Not. One. Single. Person. What happened? Why did I miss this supposedly great teen movie? Flash forward to the 2000s when 80s nostalgia is rampant, suddenly this film is on the top of everyone's lists as some sort of life altering game changer. Huh? Why didn't this pop up on my radar? I remember Weird Science, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Lost Boys, License to Drive, but Say Anything...,just wasn't one of them. I even remember "adult romantic comedies" like When Harry Met Sally, but again not Say Anything...Is there anyone else close to my age that never saw this movie? I've spent years avoiding this supposedly great film from the last year of the 80s b/c I've always felt like some super weirdo for being old enough and being in the right demographic to know about Say Anything...but never watching it or never EVEN HEARING ABOUT IT till the early 2000s when 80s nostalgia documentaries would air on VH1 or something.OK I finally picked this up on Blu-ray and I'm going to finally get around watching this long admired film that slipped past my radar in a popcorn movie obsessed year of 1989. Just by the clips I've seen over the years and the cover art, there was no way in hell this film could have competed with any of the other flicks I mentioned for the person I was at that time. Go to the arcades and play the Ninja Turtle game or watch a movie about people in college in a sappy chick flick? And yes I did venture out of my usual circle of friends occasionally back then too, in the fall of 1989 and the spring of 1990 I took some classes with people older then me and did a summer camp in both 1989 and 1990 with people even 4 or 5 years older then me. NOBODY back then talked about this film. Not even the girls. It almost feels like around the early 2000s everybody decided to retcon what they watched and voted Say Anything... as THE movie that changed their lives in 1989.Plus look at how dead this message board is. If this was truly a beloved 80s movie, it would be as jumping as Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, or Karate Kid. So if you're currently a kid of the 2010s reading this, just remember this movie is way over-hyped, not everyone watched this or even heard about this little chick flick.