Say Anything... (1989)
Directed by Cameron Crowe
Average student and eternal optimist Lloyd Dobler seeks to capture the heart of Diane Court, a beautiful but unattainable valedictorian classmate. He surprises just about everyone - including himself - when she returns the sentiment. However, Diane's divorced, over-protective father soon begins to disapprove of the match, and Lloyd realises that it's going to take more than just the power of love to conquer all.
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What critics compared Say Anything... to
About ten to fifteen years ago, there was a spurt of teen films based on classics from Jane Austen's "Emma" in "Clueless" to Shakespeare in "10 Things I Hate About You" and "O." "Easy A" updates the convention with referential homage to the films of John Hughes and John Cusack's iconic "Say Anything" boom box scene, both of which are merged in the film's climax.
Chivalry and decency are repeatedly valued and this nostalgic longing hearkens back to plenty of ‘80s teen comedies in the same vein, including Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Say Anything... Olive even name-checks John Hughes directly.
Royal and director Will Gluck strike comic gold when paying homage to iconic scenes in teen movies, especially that wonderfully sappy bit from “Say Anything” with Penn Badgley (“Gossip Girl”) subbing handsomely for a boombox-lifting John Cusack.
It’s obvious he has a thing for John Hughes/Cameron Crowe ’80s teen comedies (which Olive makes reference to at one point) – and why wouldn’t he? Sixteen Candles and Say Anything are some of the genre’s classics.
Easy A brings to mind Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Can’t Buy Me Love and Say Anything.
Hughes’ classics are referenced frequently; music – even a clip – from ”The Breakfast Club” plays) as well as other seminal 80s teen films (”Cant Buy Me Love”, ”Say Anything”), ”Easy A” is a light but nicely crafted comedy about a young girl who (Similarly to Ronald Miller in ”Cant Buy Me Love”) lies her ass off to be popular.
There are also moments that will recall, for many viewers, its most obvious influence, Say Anything — though it’s worth noting that the film is so engrossing, those parallels didn’t even occur to this viewer until well after it was over (which is saying something, since a second viewing confirms it follows the earlier picture nearly beat for beat).
Sutter recalls John Cusack in "Say Anything," and the character brings some of that teenager's gifts — of gab and a stealthy sincerity — to bear on a lovely new friendship.
That said, The Spectacular Now is one of the rare truly soulful and authentic teen movies, like last year’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower or the classic one from 24 years ago that this one most reminded me of: Say Anything.
If this film (adapted by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber from a novel by Tim Tharp) has an antecedent in the teen-movie universe, it’s Cameron Crowe’s 1989 classic Say Anything .
The teen movie “The Spectacular Now” begins like “Say Anything” but soon turns into “Drink Anything.”
Thankfully, it turns out that Sutter getting his obliviousness to how uncharming his screwed-up-edness is stripped away is going to be the point of this, perhaps the most down-to-gritty-earth teen movie since Say Anything… and a helluva lot more stark than that film ever got.
Certain elements are reminiscent of high school movies ranging from “Risky Business” to “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” to “The Breakfast Club” to “Say Anything” to “Superbad” to “Easy A,” and “Booksmart” often presents familiar characters and situations: the gigantic blow-out party, the last chance to reveal one’s true feelings to a longtime crush, well-meaning but clueless parents, the misunderstood “weirdo” kid, the big fight between best friends, etc.
We’ve seen many “booksmart” female characters in other teen films, including Say Anything and She’s All That.
The alumni include John Hughes (The Breakfast Club), Amy Heckerling (Clueless), Reginald Hudlin (House Party), Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused), Diablo Cody (Juno), Daniel Waters (Heathers), Sofia Coppola (The Bling Ring), and Cameron Crowe (Say Anything).
Tutored by decades of the genre, we wait for the class goddess to pal up with the slacker (as in “Say Anything,” from 1987), or with the dweeb (as in “I Love You, Beth Cooper,” from 2009).
There was Animal House, Say Anything, Can’t Hardly Wait, and Superbad, just to name some of the most prominent examples in the genre.
Por ahí pasan Ripley, Sinead O’Connor, el clásico romántico de Say Anything… (1989), la serie animada de Voltron: Defender of the Universe (1984) e incontables referencias que se mezclan con hitos más recientes: la automutilación cotidiana de Deadpool con la tortura –en varios sentidos– de 127 Hours (2010); las autorreferencias a la carrera de Reynolds; la burla de los esquemas clásicos de las películas de superhéroes con el famoso aterrizaje de Iron Man imitado por Angel, la parodia de las escenas post-créditos y las mofas constantes a Hugh Jackman…
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Those that do stand out — Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Say Anything…, the films of John Hughes — often become generational classics.
Edge of Seventeen comes under the aegis of producer James L. Brooks, whose got a good nose for this kind of thing; in 1989, he put his stamp of approval on Cameron Crowe’s directorial debut Say Anything , and seven years later, he lent a hand to Wes Anderson’s first feature Bottle Rocket .
But "The Fault in Our Stars" isn't just a cry-a-minute film for teens looking for an emotional connection beyond SnapChat, and early on, 17-year-old heroine Hazel Grace Lancaster (Shailene Woodley) shares that her story isn't like "Say Anything" either.
But a movie that positions itself as “the truth” takes a certain risk—especially as it raises the specter of the beloved Say Anything, where a Peter Gabriel song does fix everything.
Like “Say Anything,” “The Fault in Our Stars” is going to become a weepy rite-of-passage movie for this generation of young filmgoers.
I evoked the name of Cameron Crowe earlier because, watching Licorice Pizza, I got many of the same vibes I had during Crowe’s two best movies, Say Anything and Almost Famous.
Con claras referencias a “Almost Famous”, “Say Anything”, y a las mencionadas “Once” y “Begin Again” (incluso a “Back to the Future”), “Sing Street” nos demuestra por qué la música es perfecta para expresar frustraciones y esperanzas.
A beautiful amalgam of “ Almost Famous ,” and “ Say Anything ,” with a hint of “ Once ,” John Carney is again at his top conveying a musical drama centered on more impoverished characters.
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In one of his first solo lead roles, Nat Wolff (2013's " Admission ") is tremendously appealing as Quentin, a cross between Tom Cruise in 1983's "Risky Business," John Cusack in 1989's "Say Anything," and Emile Hirsch in 2004's " The Girl Next Door ."
Wolff's Q has an early John Cusack quality, falling somewhere between the optimism of Say Anything's Lloyd Dobler and the confidence of The Sure Thing's Gib.
It’s note of romantic pining bears echoes of Say Anything but it’s treatment of the therapeutic powers of love in an otherwise miserable, doubt-fraught existence was far more richly examined in Greg Mottola’s Adventureland .
The end result is a consistently engaging and uncommonly genuine romcom that's as breezy as it is poignant, with the film's note-perfect conclusion cementing its place as a natural successor to such above average predecessors as Say Anything... and Before Sunrise.