L.A. Story (1991)

Director: Mick Jackson

Cast: Steve Martin, Victoria Tennant, Richard E. Grant, Marilu Henner

Have I Seen It Before: Oh, sure.

Did I Like It: It’s hard for a comedy to have any staying power. Tell a guy a joke once, and he might laugh. Tell it to him again, and what other reaction is left? I had mentioned in my recent review of There’s Something About Mary (1998) that some kind of heart has to exist at the core, or the older comedy inevitably becomes unwatchable**.

And yet, there is the joy of rediscovering a comedy that you may have dimmed in memory over the years. All of the jokes here still work. The quiet mystification of vapid attachment to gadgets seems aimed at the absurdity of Los Angeles thirty-plus years ago, it seems all the more appropriate for everyone now. Weird to find a film’s running gags that are dated, but only work better now.

But the point still remains, the heart is what will make a film live beyond its shelf life, and this film would have been forgiven, possibly, for not going so aggressively for our hearts in its final minutes. The vast majority of romantic comedies are content to show the situations unfurling both before and after a couple gets together. This film makes its final impression not a joke***, but an almost silent scene depicting the sort of quantum inflection point in a romance—filled with nervous desperation—where love may or may not be requited, before it irretrievably happens or doesn’t.

I’m not sure what else a movie could hope to accomplish.

*I don’t even have a footnote, but this is a side note that must be addressed. Isn’t that a great poster? Hints at the mood of the movie, but gives away nothing. Good luck finding a mention of the movie from after the year 2000 that isn’t fixated on bad photoshops of Martin and Sarah Jessica Parker. That’s undeniably selling people a false bill of goods.

**Unless you’re the Marx Brothers, of course.

***Ok, there is one more joke centering on Bo Diddley’s “Diddy Wah Diddy” (which I only learned that was the title of the song just now), but if that’s your takeaway from watching the film… Boy, have I got a poster with Sarah Jessica Parker for you.

Johnny Dangerously (1984)

Director: Amy Heckerling

Cast: Michael Keaton, Joe Piscopo, Marilu Henner, Peter Boyle

Have I Seen it Before: I can reach into memories of the distant past to a screening on cable. Is this the last movie I saw for the first time on cable? I certainly can say that I’m probably never going to see another movie for the first time on cable. It’s almost sad...

Did I Like It: I think I’m under an obligation—with the amount of writing I’ve done about the films of Michael Keaton—to say that I unequivocally do like the film.

And yet...

Everyone here (yes, even Piscopo) feels like they’re working against their strengths. In an attempt to be a Mel Brooks/ZAZ-esque take on gangster films of the, Amy Heckerling feels more at home with the more grounded comedies that made up the eventual highs of her career in Clueless (1995) and Fast Time At Ridgemont High (1982). That’s not a terribly bad mark against her as a director, as the ZAZ team eventually became involved in hum-drum fare like Mafia! (1998) and things so foul on spec, they’re not even worth watching in the first place, like An American Carol (2008). Even Brooks whiffed out in the end. Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995) was certainly a sour end. Hell, plenty of people like Robin Hood: Men In Tights (1993) and Spaceballs (1987) but neither have ever done much for me.

I’m stalling, I know. Is Keaton any good in the film? It’s always a delight to see him, but he’s playing the role largely straight here, with none of the anarchic qualities that introduced him to movie audiences in Night Shift (1982) and he perfected in Beetlejuice (1988). It’s hard to say that I don’t particularly care for a Michael Keaton picture, but if I’m not laughing, and he’s distressingly bland in the whole thing, it’s hard not to confront reality.