Director: Allan Moyle
Cast: Anthony LaPaglia, Maxwell Caulfield, Liv Tyler, Renée Zellweger
Have I Seen It Before?: For a movie that made just over $300,000 at the box office during its original theatrical run, it sure has a regular run in my house. I’ve also noticed that Rex Manning Day is like the only holiday people born in the 80s can agree on?
Yes, I’ve seen it. With unusual frequency.
Did I like it?: It is, without any irony, my wife’s favorite movie. Like, better than everything else. I know. That’s enough to recommend it, and apparently enough for me to watch it multiple times.
It is not my favorite movie, however. It’s not my favorite grungy-day-in-the-retail-life-with-a-curated-soundtrack film from the mid-90s. A movie like Clerks (1994), for all of its flaws and the irritation it brought to humanity, had an authentic youth-oriented voice*, whereas nearly second of this film’s runtime seems orchestrated to get us kids to buy a soundtrack album that doesn’t even have the common decency to have the Jimi Hendrix version of “Hey Joe.” The whole film is a mishmash of storylines, many of which never reach their conclusion. Even “Saved by the Bell” concluded their character’s addiction to uppers before moving on with other things. I’m not sure where many of the characters might be if they were revisited 25 years later, but I’d be willing to go out on a limb that both the record store is long since gone, and Corey Mason crashed real hard sometime in 1996.
It is, however, my favorite grungy-day-in-the-retail-life-with-a-curated-soundtrack movie from 1995 that is riding the coattails of Clerks. Sorry, Mallrats (1995). Also, every time I see the scene where Mark (Ethan Embry) imagines he both joins and then is maimed by the members of GWAR makes me laugh every time. Also, upon watching the end credits this time, it doesn’t seem like there was nearly as many entries in the soundtrack from the Warner Catalogue as I once thought. Maybe it isn’t 90 minutes of corporate synergy?
*A term that could only be written by someone who is at least in their late thirties. We’re all Joe now, aren’t we?