I fell for John Cusack the hard way. What do I mean by that? Well, here's the relative order of when I saw his movies:
Serendipity
Identity
Runaway Jury
Hot Tub Time
Machine
Being John
Malkovich
Con Air
2012
1408
Gross Pointe Blank
High Fidelity
Love & Mercy
Say Anything
In other words, I've heavily backloaded his best movies. If someone loves John Cusack, odds are, that was caused by one of the later movies in my list, be it High Fidelity or Grosse Pointe Blank or something I still haven't seen. I've always liked Cusack a good deal thanks to a vague recollection of him in Serendipity and because he's affable in a number of thrillers. When he comes up when I'm talking to other people though, the other person gets this wistful look, like they're remembering a really great summer they had as a child. Having finally seen Say Anything, I get it. Young John Cusack is the most charming everyman I've come across. If Say Anything was my first exposure to him, I'd be an instant fan. I need to catch up with the rest of his 80s output.
Say Anything doesn't really make sense to me. It doesn't fit into any of the boxes I'm used to. It's a high school movie that doesn't take place in high school. It's a romance movie that kind of stops being about the romance by the third act. The relationship between Diane (Ione Skye) and her father (John Mahoney - RIP) is brazenly different than most parent/child relationships. Even something small like Cusack's two best friends being women (Lili Taylor and Pamela Adlon) without one of them being secretly in love with Cusack is bizarre (in a good way). All of this is a way of saying that this is what a good Cameron Crowe movie looks like. He's one of the greats at making a lack of focus into a strength. He meanders better than just about anyone, It hasn't worked as well with more recent films (Aloha, We Bought a Zoo, Elizabethtown), but when it clicks (Say Anything, Almost Famous), it's great in a way that feels counter-intuitive.
Verdict (?): Strongly Recommend
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