Say Anything is one of those movies that even if you've never seen it, you know of it. John Cusack holding the boombox over his head while Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" plays out of it, is an iconic moment in 1980s cinema. What teenage boy didn't want to be Lloyd Dobler and what teenage girl didn't want to date him? What's great about the movie is that apart from the hair and the fashion choices, it holds up very, very well.

Cusack plays Lloyd, an every boy who's had a crush on class valedictorian Diane Court (Skye). After graduation he takes a chance and asks her out. To Lloyd and everyone else's surprise, she accepts. The movie plays out over that summer. In the fall, Diane is going to school in England. Diane's father (Mahoney), is under investigation by the IRS. He disapproves of Lloyd and sees him as a distraction. Because of her father, Lloyd and Diane's relationship goes through a rough patch, but his legal problems soon prove to be the real distraction for her.

This was Cameron Crowe's directorial debut and he does a great job. He also wrote the screenplay and it features some very memorable lines.
"She gave me a pen. I gave her my heart, she gave me a pen."
"Nobody thinks it will work, do they?" "You just described every great success story."
"If you start out depressed everything's kind of a pleasant surprise."
And perhaps the movie's most famous lines come when Diane's father asks Lloyd what he wants to do in life and Lloyd replies, "I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that."

A really good romantic movie like this one needs to show two fully developed characters. Most love stories tend to either focus on the man or the woman. This one starts from Lloyd's perspective, but ends from Diane's. Over the course of it though, they are both shown to be fully three-dimensional people. You also see their relationship develop rather than merely having two characters suddenly decide they're in love with each other as so many love stories do.

There are a lot of teen romantic comedies. This is one of that rare breed, a teen romantic drama. Sure, there's humor in the movie, but overall this one is serious, in a way that the snarky teen comedies of today would never be. Lloyd and Diane are earnest in their feelings, not aloofly ironic about them.

The story wouldn't have worked without two likeable and charming leads and Cusack and Skye are perfect in their roles. They're believable and you can empathize and identify with them. For Cusack, this would be the movie that pushed him into stardom. Skye however, would never find the same success again. She's still acting, but this will always be the movie she's known for.

If all you know this movie for is as the one with the boombox scene, you're missing out. Yes, that is a classic cinematic moment, but this movie is so much more than just that one scene.

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