Review of Say Anything... (1989) by Mike M — 12 Jan 2012

This is a romantic comedy for those with big hearts and those who love real characters. Cameron Crowe's late 80s debut, which set a tone for his later, and even greater, films like Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous and Vanilla Sky, is a realistic take on a post high school graduation relationship.

The script, which manages to avoid any level of soapiness or sappiness, is incredibly smart and perfectly balances heartfelt romance with high school humor. As it is with most film debuts, Crowe's direction is pretty standard, but what does glow here is Crowe's soundtrack selections.

Every track choice makes the particular scene not only better, but tosses it into a romantic and dreamlike state. Reciprocally, these trademark scenes immortalize these songs as definitive romantic tracks (the immortalized song from this movie: Peter Gabriel's 'In Your Eyes').

Say Anything can also be remembered as the movie that catapulted John Cusack into stardom and a go-to actor for off-center lead types. Despite the poor casting of Ione Skye as Cusack's love interest, Crowe's above-average genre film is an easily loveable feature that will only get better with each successive viewing.