Threesome

Threesome
April 8, 1994
TriStar
Comedy, Drama, Romance
DVD
B+

This movie's racy title may be misleading.  Yes, it's about sex, including sex within and among three close but very different college roommates (guys named Eddy and Stuart, a girl named Alex), but it's also about love and friendship, and how those get mixed up with sex and with each other.  Appropriately enough, I first saw it the Fall after its initial release, on cable, in a dorm room.  In fact, I (by then a divorced 26-year-old) and two of the friends I watched it with went on to experience a more innocent version of the entanglements in the film.  So I can swear to you that the view of hijinks and pizza and sexual confusion is incredibly real.  (The "It's three in the morning!" "Shut up!" exchange is what would've occurred if anyone in our dormitory actually cared about us playing pranks on each other in the middle of the night.)  That the movie is set to a late '80s/ early '90s soundtrack (I lit up when Jellyfish's "My Best Friend" first played, and I still smile now), only further captures that time.

Even if you've never lived in a dorm, I think you'll be entertained.  The dialogue is witty in a college way.  That is, sometimes crude and sometimes pseudo-intellectual, but almost always funny.  There is also true poignancy in Eddy's dilemma.  (Josh Charles is perfect.)  He is a virgin but mostly identifies as gay, and yet he loves both his roommates.  (The word "bisexual" is never uttered by the way, which is a sign of the times.)  The romance is odd because I honestly don't like either Stuart or Alex (Stephen Baldwin and Lara Flynn Boyle) most of the time, and I don't desperately want any pair or triad of them to form.  But each time I watch the movie, I like seeing how it plays out.  I have watched the movie with a roomful of bisexuals by the way, and everyone fell silent during the ultimate sex/ love scene.  (It's not very graphic, but it is very erotic, tactile.)

Considering the small cast and budget, it's a very impressive movie, even today.  The lack of a strong plot (especially the ending) and some confusion about when Alex might've gotten pregnant (we know she usually uses condoms with Stuart, but the lack of graphic detail makes it unclear if they were forgotten during the three-sided sex), as well as the aforementioned not exactly sympathetic characters (even Eddy is insensitive to one poor girl Stuart brings "home"), weaken the film for me.  Still, there are things I like noticing, like how Alex does variations on '50s "costumes" in her everyday wardrobe, including a housewife when Stuart's date comes over for dinner.  My recommendation, watch the movie, unless the basic premise offends you.

Ironically, considering the name SNAFU (which by the way is also realistic, as I had to provide my college with proof that I was female and not subject to the draft), Dick is played by an Alex, Alexis Arquette, who is now a trans woman.  While still identifying as male, Arquette appeared as George in The Wedding Singer.  Writer/director Fleming (whose DVD commentary is well worth listening to) would appear as a doctor in Easy A, which has its own unique take on adolescent sexuality.

This is by the way, the 200th comedy on my blog, although like many of them, it's not simply a comedy.

Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead

Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead
June 7, 1991
HBO/ Warner Bros.
Comedy, Romance
VHS
B-

Like Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, this Stephen-Herek-directed Bush-I-era teen movie's parts are stronger than its whole.  In this case, I kept catching bits and pieces on cable and finding them entertaining (especially "The dishes are done, man!"), so I finally taped the whole thing.  I think DTMBD is a stronger movie than BTEA, but like its 1991 peer, Too Much Sun, it suffers from an inaccurate "ticking clock" plot.  We're told in the beginning that the Mom of the title will be in Australia for two months, but it seems like a month at most passes.  Having her come back "a week early" doesn't really help matters.  And it's never clear anyway what exactly her reaction to the shenanigans of her five bratty children might be.  She calls a couple times but the main concern is that if they tell Mom about the babysitter's death, then she'll come back early and spoil their summer fun and independence, even if there's not all that much fun or independence to be spoiled.

There are other plotholes, most significantly those centering around the main plot, that of 17-year-old firstborn Sue Ellen, nicknamed Swell, landing an administrative assistant's job with a faked resume.  Even when her cover is blown, in stages, her boss Rose manages to be remarkably forgiving.  So that's not really a threat either.  And it does seem odd that neither love interest Bryan, nor his bitchy sister Carolyn, realize until near the end that the Sue Ellens in their lives are one and the same.

In some ways, this is more of a fantasy than BTEA.  Little girls, and even grown women (like me in my mid 20s), may envy Sue Ellen.  Yes, her siblings are annoying, and yes, she's got work stress, but both her boss and her boyfriend are incredibly nice.  Also, Sue Ellen's fashion sense is given free range, even working for a company that manufactures uniforms.  (Her redesigns at the backyard fashion show are hideous, showing that that neon/citrus trend of the late '80s, as seen in Back to the Beach, was still flourishing in the new decade.  But the outfits she wears herself are great.)  Also, even when there's no food in the house, it is a wonderful big old house.

Swell is played by Married with Children's Christina Applegate, then 19, and she's paired with Josh Charles, also 19, as the warm, funny Bryan.  Their scenes together are surprisingly sweet and wholesome-- I mean on the level of Frankie & Annette-- despite the sex humor elsewhere in the movie.  (The 48-hour orgasm/ Santa Barbara exchange is great.)  Also, Swell smokes, and her brother Kenny does drugs, till he cleans up his act.  Nonetheless, I could see people letting little kids watch this movie.  They and you could do worse.  And, yes, this would be an interesting double feature with Zapped Again!, considering that fast food jobs appear in both.

David Duchovny plays Carolyn's boyfriend.  And, yes, Bryan Clark, here appearing as the doctor who's distractingly like Ronald Reagan (I mean, there's no comedic pay-off to it in this movie), occasionally played the by then former president.

Hairspray

Hairspray
February 26, 1988
New Line Cinema
Comedy, Musical, Historical
VHS
B+

This remains a lot of fun, so much fun that I've resisted seeing the musical remake, onstage or screen.  Although this may not be a musical per se, the music is an integral part of the story, and there are some wonderful oldies and oddities.  The dancing is a joy to watch, especially when Rikki Lake (as heroine Tracy Turnblad) struts her stuff.  The dialogue, particularly anything Divine says, is endlessly quotable.  The movie is well cast, nowhere more so in the stunt casting.  (Divine is married to Jerry Stiller here, while other couples include Deborah Harry & Sonny Bono and Pia Zadora & Ric Ocasek.)  I also enjoy Leslie Ann Powers as Tracy's loyal best friend Penny and Michael St. Gerard as her sexy but sensitive boyfriend Link.

John Waters, in his first PG movie, manages to send up a lot of genres at once, while at the same time paying loving tribute to his hometown of Baltimore, and making some half-serious points about society.  The pacing and energy do fall off in the last half hour.  I understand the inclusion of the governor, but this part of the story seems to have needed editing and tightening, as does much else around then.  Still, there's so much to enjoy overall that the movie is easily in my Top Five for the '80s.

Note: one of my later movie crushes, Josh Charles (then 16) makes his debut here, as Iggy.