Main Cast: John Cusack, Ione Skye, John Mahoney, Lili Taylor, Amy Brooks
Release Year: 1989
Country: US
Run Time: 100 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
Ione Skye plays Diane Court, high-school valedictorian on the verge of heading to England on a prestigious scholarship. This is especially thrilling to Diane's divorced father, James (John Mahoney), who has always shared a special relationship with the girl, less father/daughter than friend/friend. When Diane begins dating irresponsible army brat Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack), her father despairs at her choice of an "underachiever." Pressured by her dad to break off the relationship, Diane spends the rest of the summer being pursued by the lovestruck Lloyd, who does everything he can to win her back. Diane finally realizes there's more to life than perfection when her sainted father comes under the scrutiny of the IRS. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Returning to the milieu that served his first screenplay, Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), so well, Cameron Crowe's writer/director debut Say Anything is more than just another 1980s teen flick. Free of John Hughes-esque slickness and clichéd generational warfare, Crowe's trio of main characters, including (gasp) Diane's father, are complex people with problems and emotions that are not easily resolved. As in Fast Times, all of the teen characters are quirky and natural, especially Lloyd's female best friends D.C. and Corey (played by an acerbically lovelorn Lili Taylor). John Cusack makes eccentric kickboxer Lloyd utterly charming in his earnest verbosity and unabashed adoration of Ione Skye's smart, ambitious Diane; no teen-film romantic gesture can match Lloyd's boom-box blasting of Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes." In addition to hilariously and sensitively illuminating the mixed feelings of outsider-dom and first love, Say Anything is also that rare film (teen or otherwise) that honestly celebrates female strength and male sensitivity without resorting to offensive pap, confirming Crowe's arrival as one of the potentially more astute filmmakers in Hollywood. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
Pamela Segall - Rebecca; Jason Gould - Mike Cameron; Loren Dean - Joe; Joan Cusack - Lloyd's Sister (uncredited); Lois Chiles - Diane's Mother (uncredited); Eric Stoltz - Vahlere; Jonathan Chapin - Guy #1; Gloria Cromwell - Ruth; Lisanne Falk - Sandra; Joanna Frank - Mrs. Kerwin; Jay R. Goldenberg - Al Kerwin; Jaime Gomez - Partier; John Green, Jr. - Luke; Philip Baker Hall - IRS Boss; Glenn Walker Harris, Jr. - Jason; Tom Lawrence - Shop Customer; Russel Lunday - Parent; Bebe Neuwirth - Mrs. Evans; Chynna Phillips - Mimi; Jeremy Piven - Mark; Richard Portnow - Agent Stewart; Gregory Sporleder - Howard; Bill Stevenson - Partier; Charles Walker - Principal; Kim Walker - Sheila; Jerry Ziesmer - U.S. Attorney; Polly Platt - Mrs. Flood; John Bruner - Guy; Arlan Feiles - Guy #3; Kathryn Fuller - Eva; Montrose Hagins - Bess; John Hillner - Court's Attorney; Nicholas Kallsen - Nose-Setter; Jim Ladd - D.J.; Kathleen Layman - Saleswoman; Patrick O'Neill - Denny; Thomas Payne - Man in Kickboxing Doorway; Allison Roth - Tammy; Stephen Shortridge - Ray; Annie Waterman - IRS Secretary; Donald Willis - Guy #2; Lenore Woodward - Sabina; Edward A. Wright - Mr. Taylor; Christopher Ziesmer - Guy #4; Don "The Dragon" Wilson - Sparring Partner
Credit
Randy Stone - Casting, Richard Marks - Co-producer, Jane Ruhm - Costume Designer, Jerry Ziesmer - First Assistant Director, Cameron Crowe - Director, Richard Marks - Editor, Karen I. Stern - Editor, James L. Brooks - Executive Producer, Anne Dudley - Composer (Music Score), Richard Gibbs - Composer (Music Score), Nancy Wilson - Composer (Music Score), Danny Bramson - Musical Direction/Supervision, Cheri Minns - Makeup, Michael Gershman - Camera Operator, Mark Mansbridge - Production Designer, Laszlo Kovacs - Cinematographer, Jack Roe - Production Manager, Polly Platt - Producer, Joe Mitchell - Set Designer, Cameron Crowe - Screenwriter
Say Anything... is a 1989romantic film written and directed by Cameron Crowe and marked Crowe's directorial debut. In 2002, Entertainment Weekly ranked Say Anything... as the greatest modern movie romance. This movie ranked number 11 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the fifty best high school movies.[1] It is among the 50 best reviewed films of all time, according to Rotten Tomatoes.[2]
Set in Seattle, Washington, the film features Lloyd Dobler (played by John Cusack), a mediocre student and aspiring kickboxer who attempts a relationship with valedictorian Diane Court (played by Ione Skye) immediately after their graduation from the same high school. Diane has just won a major fellowship to study in England, and will be going there at the end of the summer. Highly intelligent and yet socially inexperienced, Diane is intrigued by Lloyd's endearing manner and willingness to take a chance on someone like her. She agrees to Lloyd's request for a date, and the two of them begin seeing each other regularly.
Lloyd seeks advice and counsel from his sister and several close, female friends who are genuinely looking out for Lloyd's best interests as he embarks on his first serious, romantic relationship. Diane's father, Jim (played by John Mahoney), is under investigation by the Internal Revenue Service for alleged tax violations committed at his nursing home, and as the relationship between Lloyd and Diane deepens, she worries that she should be spending more time with her father, rather than with Lloyd. Also, Jim does not approve of his daughter dating an underachiever like Lloyd, and pressures her to break up with him.
Lloyd ultimately wins Diane's heart before the summer's end, and helps support her emotionally after her father's conviction. The film ends with Lloyd escorting nervous-flyer Diane to England.
Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert called it "one of the best films of the year — a film that is really about something, that cares deeply about the issues it contains — and yet it also works wonderfully as a funny, warmhearted romantic comedy."[4] It has also received a "100% Fresh" rating at RottenTomatoes.com.[5]
The film was not without detractors, however. Caryn James of The New York Times said the film "resembles a first-rate production of a children's story. Its sense of parents and the summer after high school is myopic, presented totally from the teen-agers' point of view. Yet its melodrama — Will Dad go to prison? Will Diane go to England? — distorts that perspective, so the film doesn't have much to offer an actual adult, not even a sense of what it's truly like to be just out of high school these days. The film is all charming performances and grace notes, but there are plenty of worse things to be."[6]Variety called it a "half-baked love story, full of good intentions but uneven in the telling."[7]
References in modern culture
Pencey Prep released a song titled "Lloyd Dobler" on their album Heartbreak in Stereo.
