When Harry Met Sally... (1989)

Director: Rob Reiner
Writer:    Nora Ephron
Cast:       Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher

Harry and Sally have known each other for years, and are very good friends, but they fear sex would ruin their friendship. So in essence, their approach is the complete opposite to the one in Spaced, where two house mates have sex right away so that the sexual tension won't make their time together awkward. 

So what you have here is what should be a very Woody Allen like New-York picture with neurotic characters. The film starts off well with the couple of time jumps starting with the time they were in college and meeting for the first time when they took an eighteen hour car ride from Chicago Uni to NYC. Finally it settles ten years later after both of them just coming out from long-term relationships. The time jumps are done accompanying testimonails from some very old couples. Ten years back they had started off in an abrasive manner disagreeing on the topic of 'Whether a man and woman can just stay as friends without any sex/ sexual thoughts coming in between'.

So even in their thirties they are trying it out in their case as they become thick friends. I felt the film was very interesting up to a point after which I began to lose interest as you know how it is going to end. It wouldn't have been a problem if it takes you there in an interesting manner but it really felt like a chore for me. That said, the famous deli scene where they debate about fake orgasms and Sally proceeds to fake one right there was great, and you do get a Seinfeld vibe about the whole thing. That Deli in NY still has a sign which refers to  the legendary response from an older woman on-looker. The idea for that scene was suggested by Meg Ryan and the line by Billy Crystal. On the whole the film felt like a not very funny extended Seinfeld episode which is a shame considering how well it began. You know what could be a good idea, a film that features just their 18 hour car drive from Chicago to New-York and when the film began I thought it was gonna be a road movie like that with lots of talking.

Overall it is a decent watch without being all that good on the whole. I just went through Meg Ryan's filmography and realized that I hadn't seen any of her films prior to this. So it makes sense that I didn't like it very much since she seems to be perennially involved with wrong sort of rom-coms for me. I need a lot more of self-loathing and neurosis. Rob Reiner went on to make several films with Nora Ephron as his screenwriter. 

Rating: 2.5/5

                                                                           

This Is Spinal Tap (1984)

Director: Rob Reiner
Writers:  Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Rob Reiner
Cast:       Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Rob Reiner

Spinal tap, one of England's loudest bands, is chronicled by film director Marty DeBergi on what proves to be a fateful US tour. Rob Reiner plays the role of Marty who is making the 'Rockumentary' and the actual film turns out to be a mockumentary. Spinal Tap justifies their claim of being England's loudest band by having an amplifier that can be turned up to eleven instead of the usual 10. As a homage to possibly film's most memorable sequence, IMDB shows it rating to be out of eleven instead of the usual ten.

Film didn't do very well when it was released but went on to gain a cult following since its home video release. Many rock bands have admitted that they saw few of their own experiences in the film in one way or the other. Many people thought when the film released  that an actual band called Spinal Tap existed and this was an actual documentary. The documentary way in which it is filmed makes it a very non-slapstick approach to comedy and the reactions by the band members as they bullshit their way through interviews trying to sound deep are hilarious. I hate it when filmmakers kind of lingers on at a comedic moment after the punchline as if they are gloating about their own cleverness, making sure that audience got the joke. This film doesn't do that in anyway whatsoever and so there is no spoon-feeding. You get all the 60s & 70s rock band tropes like pretentious existentialism, band members ending up dead suffocating on vomit, in you face sexualization , mystic hippy vibe, a Yoko Ono like girlfriend derailing things etc. Metallica's Black Album is a reference to Spinal Tap's 'Smell the Glove' which in the film was released in a black cover after their original cover idea of having a naked girl on all fours in a leash being made to smell a glove was deemed sexist (What is wrong with being sexy?). Spinal Tap has become a verb now in rock lingo.

This was a re-watch for me after seeing it for the first time some four years back. The character name Marty DeBergi is an homage to Scorsese, Brian De Palma, Spielberg, Fellini and Antonioni. Rob Reiner did his best two works very early in his career with the other one besides 'This is Spinal Tap' being 'Stand By Me'. Apart from these I have only seen 'A Few Good Men' which was an alright film made famous by that hilarious yet powerful monologue from Jack Nicholson. Am gonna check out 'When Harry met Sally...' soon.

Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and...

Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?

Nigel Tufnel: Exactly.

Marty DiBergi: Does that mean it's louder? Is it any louder?

Nigel Tufnel: Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?

Marty DiBergi: I don't know.

Nigel Tufnel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?

Marty DiBergi: Put it up to eleven.

Nigel Tufnel: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.

Marty DiBergi: Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?

Nigel Tufnel: [pause] These go to eleven.

Rating: 4.5/5

                                                                         

Stand by Me (1986)

Director: Rob Reiner
Writers:  Stephen King, Raynold Gideon, Bruce A.Evans
Cast:      Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell
A writer recounts a boyhood journey to find the body of a missing boy.

Beautiful film without any Hollywood glossing over. Excellent performances and a very good ending.

Rating: 4.5/5