20 Somethings Series - Film #1: SINGLES

If you don't know what this is film #1 of, please refer here.

 Singles (1992) - Dir. Cameron Crowe

Is a romantic comedy following the lives of a group of singles who live in a low-rise apartment complex, played out against the backdrop of the Seattle grunge scene of the early 90's.  Warning, this blog will include spoilers.

I'd mentioned previously how I didn't like this movie much the first couple times I saw it, but it grew on me to the point that I bought my own copy of the movie.  So the obvious question is why?  I think the most obvious reasons are because I like smart ensemble cast rom-coms, coupled with the fact that it's directed by Cameron Crowe (whose work I will always test drive), and the 90's nostalgia.  So many movies made in the 90's don't encapsulate what the decade was about for me (without giving away too much about my age, for better or worse, all my teenage years were played out in that decade.) and while the characters in Singles are clearly much older than I am, I find I can still relate, especially as I got older.

Even after seeing it 4 times, I think the characters themselves still have a lot of shortcomings.  Though I also see that's kind of the point.  Kyra Sedgewick's character Linda drives me up the wall.  She claims she doesn't want drama, but then she gets over-analytical about everything, never seems to shut up (maybe I'm way off here, but show of hands: who looks at their partner right at the climax of having sex and asks "What are you thinking?"  Dear lord...), and when Steve shows up to her office in attempts to be sincere she totally plays games.  Really, who in their right minds could want a bitch who says she don't play games, but then plays games??

Bridget Fonda as lovestruck Janet is almost as bad (the character not the actress), she's completely delusional and is easily influenced by whoever is around her.  Nevermind that she lets this jerky musician walk all over her, but then 2 mins in the doctor's office with Bill Pullman and boom, her mind is changed. She does have one of my favourite lines in the movie, where she narrates that "I've always been able to do this, break up with someone and never look back. Being alone: there's a certain dignity to it." I would say I couldn't agree with her more, if I didn't know she was the type of person who will change her tune 15 mins later.

Steve's finest moment in the entire movie was when he was trying to explain how his ex was now dating a guy who was cheating on her, and Steve knew this because the other woman is someone he used to date.  See, there's truth to that scenario, whereas everything else about him is your typical fantasy romantic comedy male -- guys like that do not exist.  Ladies, if you still believe someone like him is out there, you will find that when you finally do meet this guy, he will be over-sensitive, needlessly wordy, emotionally intimidating, and overall a nightmare to date.  No, shockingly the most genuine character in this movie is...

Matt Dillon's portrayal of Cliff.  The hot, sometimes idiotic, grunge rocker who makes no pretenses about dating exclusively, has his priorities straight in such a way that suits his lifestyle and interests, and carries it all with confidence (which can also be construed as selfish and egotistical, but if those are his biggest shortcomings then he's already way ahead of the others).  Not to mention he's got some of the coolest band mates haha.

Much as I want to criticize these people for more than just their fashion choices, I must begrudgingly admit... I've been guilty of behaving similarly at points in my life.  I was rolling my eyes last night, thinking how can they all be so sane with their friends, but then turn batshit crazy as soon as they turn to face their partner -- Steve and Janet in particular, but that's just the way love is sometimes.  Especially in your teens and your 20's.  (Ok, who are we kidding?  I still see that happening to people in their 30's) In the end, the truth is what keeps us interested and relating to them even if we don't necessarily like what we see.

The realization I had after the movie was finished though, was that these guys weren't really that directionless... in love perhaps, but not much in their lives otherwise.  Linda and Steve had viable jobs that looked fulfilling and might lead to a successful career and money.  Cliff's following his dream and while impractical, there's nothing directionless about that.  And Janet was going back to architecture school.  The movie stayed on the topic of their love lives and didn't really pose any questions about other aspects of their lives.  It's a tight focus but it works, sometimes you open up the possibilities too much and wind up with a mess of a movie.  Cameron Crowe knew better.

I'm not gonna go into detail about the soundtrack, all the great Seattle bands' cameos, etc.  It was fun to see them all grace the screen but ultimately I feel like a poser when I try to write about Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam or Soundgarden.  Truth is, I look back fondly and respectfully at their contributions to music now, but at the time I never had a full appreciation for them.

So I think I'll just leave you with a line from the movie, this is Steve on the phone with Linda:

"Linda Powell? Steve Dunne...Hey, yeah, I met you... 61 hours ago... Yeah, that was me.. Listen, uh, do you want to get some dinner?... Uh, how about some lunch?... No lunch. Coffee?.. Water? How about some water?... I'll meet you where you're already having lunch, and we'll have some water"

 LOL, like/share/+1 this blog if you've ever wound up making an awkward date like that one!

Lost 20-Somethings in the Movies - A Four Week Mini Film Club Challenge

(2 months of inactivity, you'd think I'd return to offer you some TIFF reviews?  Nope, keep waiting...sorry...)

The Premise:

It's like a book club but with movies!  Participants will watch one designated film per week tied to the theme of "Lost 20-Somethings" and discuss.  The 4 week series will conclude with St Elmo's Fire on Friday, December 9th @ 9pm where participants are encouraged to get together and attend the screening at TIFF Lightbox.  In person attendance is not required, you can also watch the movie on your own.  As all discussion will take place online (or be transcribed to appear online?), feel free to participate from all over the globe.  Discussion points, responses, etc can be posted in the comments of this blog, submitted to me privately, on Facebook, where ever... I will then consolidate and repost here.

As with all film viewings and challenges that I propose, even if you don't actively want to participate you are still welcome to watch the movies, read the blogs, and come along for the ride.  Even if no one else takes me up on this, I'm still gonna go ahead with the movies and post my thoughts in the coming weeks.  I really do hope some of you will join in the discussion though.

Background:

It started with TIFF Bell Lightbox releasing it's fall film schedule that included the return of the "Back to the 80's" series, this time including my favourite Brat Pack movie St Elmo's Fire.  I shared my excitement about this with a few people including Mike, who has never seen the movie.  He'd watched the trailer previously and wasn't overly impressed, he thought the characters seemed like a bunch of jerks (or something to that effect) therefore why would he want to watch a movie about them?

Then a couple nights ago I was shuffling a few movies around to make everything fit on the shelf and found myself holding my copy of Singles, which made me think...now there's a group of annoying characters.  In fact, the reason why I didn't think much of Singles the first and second time I saw it was because Bridget Fonda's character was dippy, Matt Dillon an ass, and I wanted to knock Kyra Sedgwick's teeth out whenever she spoke.  Clearly something about the film grew on me though because I eventually went out and bought myself a copy.

Another film that is often referenced alongside Singles is Reality Bites, which was also lost on me the first time I saw it (as a bright-eyed 15 year old who believed that graduating from university would solve all of life's problems), but I grew to love it more with each viewing leading up to my mid-20's.  If you think about it though, lotta those characters are whiny, neurotic, and self-important too.

So what is it that makes these films iconic favs amongst quasi-directionless Gen X-ers?  I guess somewhere along the line, though we'd like to think ourselves less annoying than these slackers on the big screen, we can relate.  Assuming most readers of this blog have navigated through their "Lost 20-somethings" stage (and maybe moved on to the "Lost 30-somethings" stage?  Please tell me the 40's bring more direction though, I don't know how many more decades of this I want to wade thru :P ) I thought it would be interesting to re-visit these movies and have a little discussion on them.  There's a wide range of topics that can be touched on from what makes the films likable despite some unappealing personalities, to how our own lives parallel the films' events (or not), to the cultural significance portrayed in the backdrop of the stories, etc. etc.

The Films:

Week 1 (during week of Nov 14): Singles dir. Cameron Crowe
Week 2 (during week of Nov 21): Reality Bites dir. Ben Stiller
Week 3 (during week of Nov 28): Your Choice*
Week 4 (Friday, December 9): St Elmo's Fire dir. Joel Schumacher

*Admittedly I had some difficulty designating a 4th film that would closely mirror the theme alongside the other three movies.  As mentioned Singles and Reality Bites are often compared side by side, and Reality Bites and St. Elmo's Fire are in many ways the 80's vs 90's version of the same story.  I could not find a 4th movie that fit in quite as perfectly, so rather than choose one film and then have people point out all the obvious differences and incompatibilities, I'm just going to let everyone choose their own "Lost 20-Somethings" movie.  There are so many...I haven't even decided on my own, below are some of my considerations...

The Big Chill - An 80's film that would balance out the 80's/90's ratio of the viewing list.  It fits the bill of ensemble cast of friend characters and all the interactions between them.  Though I've yet to grow to love the movie, I do find myself re-watching it every few years so there must be reason for that.  Sadly I can relate to the circumstances for their reunion, maybe that's my connection to the film.  It is an 80's film, however the characters are not 20-somethings but 30-somethings (maybe after I get through this decade I will come to understand the film better?) making them part of the Boomer generation instead of Gen X.

About Last Night - This one always seems to come up in the recommendations column whenever I do a search on Singles.  I've never seen it, but from the description seems more like rom-com than coming of age or Gen X directionless-ness.  However, having never seen it, I would kind of like to...

Mallrats - Tipping the scale towards the 90's if I pick this one, but it does feature directionless 20-somethings at their finest.  But with all things Kevin Smith-Jersey, the Kevin Smith part of it does seem to overpower any other underlying themes the movie might have.

Ghost World - The epitome of directionless youth.  However if you want to nitpick, Enid and Rebecca are high school grads thus not 20+.  Also the two of them do not equal an ensemble cast.  In the movie the characters would be considered more Gen Y, however Daniel Clowes wrote these characters as high school grads from the early 90's thus making them originally part of Gen X. (It can also be argued that I don't need to watch Ghost World again to write about it, I can pretty much recite all the dialogue from memory.  I watched it numerous times during my 20's whenever I felt blue because I was lost...so needless to say I watched it A LOT)