Diner (1982)

[Movie 262 / Day 279]

Diner is a coming-of-age movie, set in 50s America, a time when young men hung out at the local diner for hours and didn’t curse in front of women. It’s a semi-autobiographical story from Barry Levinson and really, not much happens. We follow this group of early-20s men around over Christmas in 1959, as they make decisions that will affect the rest of their lives and eventually leave the diner behind. The major events in the plot are such things as an argument over a roast beef sandwich; Boogie (Mickey Rourke) trying to pay off a gambling debt by making wagers with his friends on how far Carol will let him go on their dates; and Fenwick (Kevin Bacon) getting drunk and naked and lying in the manger in the nativity scene outside the local church.

It’s reasonably well acted (although Rourke seems a bit disinterested and Steve Guttenberg has the beginnings of the annoying smugness that was so apparent in many of his later movies) and it held my attention; following each little drama unfolding in the individual lives is quite voyeuristic in a way. Having said that, I wouldn’t call it a classic and I probably wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, but it wasn’t a bad film by any means.

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