Review of Diner (1982) by Kris W — 11 Nov 2011

'Suddenly, life was more than french fries, gravy and girls.'.

'What they wanted most wasn't on the menu.'.

Great early Barry Levinson (Rain Man) movie, full of terrific dialogue and acting from an all star cast that includes Mickey Rourke, Daniel Stern, Tim Daly, Kevin Bacon, Steve Guttenberg, Paul Reiser and Ellen Barkin. Similar in its feeling of time and place to American Grafitti and Dazed and Confused. Part of Levinson's "Baltimore Trilogy", along with Tin Men and Avalon.

Beth: That's very mature, Fenwick.

Fenwick: Fuck mature!

Edward Eddie Simmons: If you want to talk, you always have the guys at the diner. You don't need a girl if you wanna talk.

Boogie: You know I got plans.

Bagel: Always a dreamer, hey, Boog?

Boogie: If you don't have good dreams, Bagel, you got nightmares.

Modell: We all know most marriages depend on a firm grasp of football trivia.

Shrevie: when you're dating, everything is talking about sex. Where can we do it? Why can't we do it? Are you parents gonna be out so we can do it? Everything is always talkin about getting sex, and then planning the wedding, all the details. But then, when you get married... it's crazy, I dunno. You can get it whenever you want it. You wake up in the morning and she's there. You come home from work and she's there. So all that sex planning talk is over with. And so is the wedding planning talk cause you're already married. So... ya know I can come down here and we can bullshit the entire night away but I cannot hold a 5 minute conversation with Beth. I mean it's not her fault, I'm not blaming her, she's great... It's just, we got nothing to talk about... But it's good, it's good.

Timothy Fenwick, Jr.: [to his older brother] It's funny. You know, when I was a little kid I always wanted a brother. I told that to mom once and she said, "You have a brother". I said, "Oh, so that's who the asshole in the other bed is".