Written by Helen Childress, Directed by Ben Stiller, Produced by Danny DeVito
| Starring: | Wynona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, Janeanne Garafolo, Ben Stiller, Steve Zahn |
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Written by Helen Childress, Directed by Ben Stiller, Produced by Danny DeVito
|
Four college friends face the prospect of real life after graduation. Wynona`s valedictory address sets the tone of the film when she expresses uncertainty about the future and whether idealism and hope are viable options.
Wynona seeks to deny her upper-middle class background, Janeanne is a passionless slut who does it just to make a point, Ethan is a well-read and intelligent slacker, and Steve is a fourth banana token gay guy.
This cast of characters ends up sharing an apartment after a while, and trouble soon results. Wynona`s video docu-diary provides an ironic camera-within-a-camera view of the whole scene. It seems that some twenty-somethings lose jobs due to boss-related attitudes or inability to fit in, and there is no celebration when one does well-she must have sold out! Also, they love kitsch from the 1970`s, that Age of Innocence before the dreaded Reagan Era, but it fuels bitter irony, not fond and loving memories of a simpler time.
After losing her promising paid internship, Wynona goes into a depression and becomes a great burden to the others. She maxes out her dad`s credit card to keep up with bills, and is on the verge of collapse until she meets teen cable network executive Ben and begins to fall in love while forgetting slacker Ethan.
The well-meaning Ben tries to help her career by submitting her video to his network, but the heavily-edited final cut ends up insulting his beloved. Will Wynona choose the happy-to-be-unhip Ben or the too-cool-to-shave-and-button-his-shirt Ethan?
Well, despite all the twenty-something angst our heroes suffer, we have Some Kind of a Wonderful ending as Molly, uh, Wynona choses her long-time friend over a wealthier and slicker interloper.
Comment: here`s a definition of irony, Ben and Ethan: We`ve got a director and producer known exclusively for comedy; the director/co-star had his own well-received comedy sketch show featuring another co-star, Janeanne, only two years before; his parents were a well-known comedy duo for decades, one of whom has a cameo here; and Ethan was and is a heart throb to young gals everywhere. This movie was even called a comedy in all marketing campaigns at the time, but is not funny, and makes no noticeable attempt to be. It`s not even a black comedy, it`s just depressing. Compare and contrast to the much funnier, simultaneous film release Singles, which covers much of the same ground.
Trivia: cameos by Swoosie Kurtz, Anne Meara, Joe Don Baker and John "Frazier`s Dad" Mahoney as adult interference types. Cameos by Evan Dando and David Spade as young hipsters.
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