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Say Anything...
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Cameron Crowe
Produced by	Polly Platt
Written by	Cameron Crowe
Starring	John Cusack Ione Skye John Mahoney Lili Taylor Joan Cusack
Cinematography	László Kovács
Editing by	Richard Marks
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	April 14, 1989
Running time	100 minutes
Language	English
Budget	$16 million
Gross revenue	$20,781,385 (USA)

Say Anything... is a 1989 romance film written and directed by Cameron Crowe and marked Crowe's directorial debut. In 2002, Entertainment Weekly ranked Say Anything... as the greatest modern movie romance. This movie ranked number 11 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the fifty best high school movies.^[1]

Plot summary

Set in Seattle, Washington, the film features Lloyd Dobler (played by John Cusack), a mediocre student and aspiring kickboxer who attempts a relationship with valedictorian Diane Court (played by Ione Skye) immediately after their graduation from the same high school. Diane has just won a major fellowship to study in England, and will be going there at the end of the summer. Highly intelligent and yet socially inexperienced, Diane is intrigued by Lloyd's endearing manner and willingness to take a chance on someone like her. She agrees to Lloyd's request for a date, and the two of them begin seeing each other regularly.

Lloyd seeks advice and counsel from his sister and several close, female friends who are genuinely looking out for Lloyd's best interests as he embarks on his first serious romantic relationship. Diane's father, Jim (played by John Mahoney), is under investigation by the Internal Revenue Service for alleged tax violations committed at his nursing home, and as the relationship between Lloyd and Diane deepens, she worries that she should be spending more time with her father, rather than with Lloyd. Also, Jim does not approve of his daughter dating an underachiever like Lloyd, and pressures her to break up with him.

Lloyd ultimately wins Diane's heart before the summer's end, and helps support her emotionally after her father's conviction. The film ends with Lloyd escorting nervous flyer Diane to England.

Characters

• John Cusack as Lloyd Dobler
• Ione Skye as Diane Court
• John Mahoney as Jim Court
• Joan Cusack as Constance Dobler
• Lili Taylor as Corey Flood

Soundtrack

Allmusic said the soundtrack, like the film, is "much smarter than the standard teen fare of the era."^[2] The soundtrack included 11 songs:

• "All For Love" - Nancy Wilson [4:37]
• "Cult Of Personality" - Living Colour [5:07]
• "One Big Rush" - Joe Satriani [3:25] (also on Satriani's Flying in a Blue Dream)
• "You Want It" - Cheap Trick [3:43] (also on the band's compilation album Sex, America, Cheap Trick)
• "Taste the Pain" - Red Hot Chili Peppers [5:04]
• "In Your Eyes" - Peter Gabriel [5:23]
• "Stripped" - Depeche Mode [6:41]
• "Skankin' To The Beat" - Fishbone [2:49]
• "Within Your Reach" - The Replacements [4:26]
• "Keeping The Dream Alive" - Freiheit [4:14]
• "Lloyd Dobbler Rap" [0:33]

Critical reception

Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert called it "one of the best films of the year — a film that is really about something, that cares deeply about the issues it contains — and yet it also works wonderfully as a funny, warmhearted romantic comedy."^[3] It has also received a "100% Fresh" rating at RottenTomatoes.com.^[4]

The film was not without detractors, however. Caryn James of The New York Times said the film "resembles a first-rate production of a children's story. Its sense of parents and the summer after high school is myopic, presented totally from the teen-agers' point of view. Yet its melodrama — Will Dad go to prison? Will Diane go to England? — distorts that perspective, so the film doesn't have much to offer an actual adult, not even a sense of what it's truly like to be just out of high school these days. The film is all charming performances and grace notes, but there are plenty of worse things to be."^[5] Variety called it a "half-baked love story, full of good intentions but uneven in the telling."^[6]

References in modern culture

Perhaps the most iconic scene in the film takes place near the end where Lloyd stands outside Diane's bedroom window, holding a boombox over his head while Peter Gabriel's In Your Eyes plays. The scene has been referenced in popular culture multiple times since.

Pencey Prep released a song titled "Lloyd Dobler" on their album Heartbreak in Stereo.

There is a Californian indie-rock band named Say Anything, whose song That's That (Do What We Want) contains the lyric "we're an army of (John) Cusack boys and Molly Ringwald girls".

In dan le sac vs Scroobius Pip's song 'Waiting for the Beat to Kick In' there is a lyric quoting the film, saying "How hard is it to decide to be in a good mood and then be in a good mood?" - said by the character himself in the song.

The indie-rock band, The Starting Line's video for their song "The Best Of Me" centers around the concept of the boombox scene

In the British sitcom Spaced, Simon Pegg's character Tim Bisley uses the same technique as Lloyd Dobler to win the heart of his landlady in the penultimate episode.

In "The Lather Effect", a 2006 nostalgia film centered around an 80's theme party, the words from one of Corey Flood's songs about Joe are written on the wall of a character's basement, "Joe lies when he cries".

On Relient K's 2009 album Forget and Not Slow Down, the song "Part of It" contains the line "It's been forever since I've gone, but I'm the Cusack on the lawn of your heart."

In the episode "Raisins" on television's South Park, Stan is told to get Wendy back he must "stand outside her window, and play Peter Gabriel". He does it exactly the same way as in Say Anything... except that he plays Gabriel's song "Shock the Monkey".

Saturday Night Live did a spoof of the famous boombox scene in its November 21, 2009 episode, with host, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, taking on the role of Lloyd Dobler.

In the episode "Moon Landing" on "Modern Family" TV show, Dylan tries to get back his girl-friend Hayley by holding his iPhone up in front of her window. When Phil, Hayley's father, sees him and mentions the name of the movie Say Anything, Dylan does not get it, and responds by saying any random phrase like "good morning," "newspaper," and "clutch movie."

The flash cartoonist Weebl has created a parody of the iconic moment on his site titled "Anything"

In the ABC Family Original Series "Greek", the local student bar is called Doblers. In an episode of Greek Rusty stands outside Dana's dormitory holding a radio however it is mentioned that he forgot the "Peter Gabriel."

The Hawthorne Heights song "Niki FM" contains the lyric "I'm outside of your window with my radio" making a reference to the famous moment.

References

External links

• Say Anything... at the Internet Movie Database
• Say Anything... at Allmovie
• Los Angeles Times retrospective