Say Anything, Valley
Girl, Risky Business, The Princess Bride, Revenge of the Nerds.
You know that feeling when you rewatch a movie from your younger
years as an adult, and it’s just, well, disappointing? Because it’s just not
the same? Well, rest easy. None of the movies showing this week at the Blue
Starlite fall into that nostalgia trap.
Especially Say
Anything. I may be biased because I fall into that particular demographic
of women of a particular age. For us, Lloyd Dobler will permanently occupy a
piece of real estate in our romantic imaginations. But that’s not the best part
of this movie. If you ever listen to the DVD commentary for Say Anything (that’s right, don’t judge
me), you’ll hear Cameron Crowe discuss the inspiration for Lloyd’s character.
How he uses “optimism as a revolutionary act”.
I always loved that. It’s not denial or blind faith. Lloyd is just
unapologetic about his passions and dreams. Which primarily include Diane. And
kickboxing. Frankly, a heavy dose of shameless optimism is exactly what feels right
this week. And there’s no better place to watch Say Anything than at a drive-in theatre.
Where Say Anything
just gets better with age, Revenge of the
Nerds is just a hilarious reminder of how much our culture has
reappropriated the very term ‘nerd’ in the last couple of decades. For better
or worse geek-culture is now so vast that I can no longer define ‘nerd’ any
more than I can define ‘hipster’ anymore. (Though on
a side note, you will spot one or two appropriately modern hipster outfits
throughout this movie.) The movie is kind of gross, politically incorrect, outdated,
and full of pure cartoonish stereotypes of outcasts from the 80’s. Simply put, it's refreshing. It’s a snapshot of specific time and of a specific style of comedy.
King-of-the-Nerds Wil Wheaton describes it best. “You couldn’t make Revenge of the Nerds right now,” he says,
“because we won.”
So come out to Blue Starlite this week. See a pre-Top Gun Jonathan Edwards and Tom Cruise.
And be the unapologetic, optimistic, movie nerd that you are.
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