From the Rental Vault (1982): Diner

By 1982, Baltimore-born Barry Levinson had a slew of writing credits on his resumé, including work on some of television's best comedy and variety shows like The Carol Burnett Show, as well as co-writing Silent Movie and High Anxiety with Mel Brooks. He also had an Oscar nomination for co-writing the 1979 Al Pacino movie ...And Justice for All. It's probably not surprising, then, that he would choose one of his own scripts for his directorial debut, and thus we have his semi-autobiographical coming of age ensemble movie, 1982's Diner.

Diner was the first of four movies Levinson wrote and directed set in his hometown that described experiences he knew firsthand as well as some of his family history. Set in 1959, it tells the story of six longtime friends, now in their early 20s, who reunite over the Christmas holiday for the wedding of one of their number, Eddie Simmons (Steve Guttenberg). Other members of the group are Timothy "Fen" Fenwick (Kevin Bacon), Robert "Boogie" Sheftell (Mickey Rourke), Billy Howard (Tim Daly), and Lawrence "Shrevie" Schrieber (Daniel Stern), who is married to high school sweetheart Beth (Ellen Barkin). Paul Reiser is also part of the group, playing the one-named character Modell.

Levinson set much of the movie as conversation between different combinations of his actors and also encouraged them to improvise some of their dialogue. The scenes in the actual diner were filmed last, so he could build on the camaraderie built up over the shoot. In terms of actual storylines, we're following the preparations for Eddie's marriage -- which include a brutal football trivia quiz for the bride-to-be; Boogie's dangerous debt to a local loan shark and his plans to win a big bet to cover it and how Shrevie and Beth handle the difference between life as a dating couple and life as a married couple. All of the leads reflect on the changes adulthood brings to their lives, mainly through conversations with each other.

Although often hilarious, Diner isn't only a comedy. Nor is it solely a drama, even though we watch changes in all of our leads over the course of the movie. It may seem odd today, given the different high profiles nearly the entire cast earned for themselves during the 1980s and the Oscar nomination Levinson earned for the screenplay, but MGM thought Diner would bomb and only released it when the New Yorker ran a positive review by respected critic Pauline Kael.

If Diner got made at all today, it would probably have to be self-financed and generate buzz at Sundance or some other film festival in hopes a distributor might pick it up. Then it would probably have to be re-shot with some "indie cred"-building name inserted into the cast or featuring Ryan Reynolds or Jason Bateman so as to lure the hipsters, as well as more flatulence humor. But fortunately it wasn't, and even if Steve Guttenberg went off to kill his career with way too many Police Academy movies and Mickey Rourke went off to outer space for twenty years, Diner is still one of the top movies of the rental vault and one of the few DVDs I actually own. For a dissenting view, you can check out the review at Box Office Magazine's online site. But be warned, the review actually uses the phrase "paltry fare" in an unironic sense. Couple that with four-star ratings for 30 Minutes or Less and The Change-Up, and you have a good reason to ignore that forum's opinions.