{"id":89170,"date":"2023-01-01T12:39:44","date_gmt":"2023-01-01T19:39:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=89170"},"modified":"2023-10-19T23:30:10","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T06:30:10","slug":"diner-1981","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=89170","title":{"rendered":"Diner (1982)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;We all know most marriages depend on a firm grasp of football trivia.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Diner-Poster.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Diner-Poster-200x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-89171\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Diner-Poster-200x300.png 200w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Diner-Poster-85x128.png 85w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Diner-Poster-180x270.png 180w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Diner-Poster.png 629w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nWhile a young man (Steve Guttenberg) in Baltimore prepares to marry his wife if she passes a football trivia quiz, his friend Shrevie (Daniel Stern) muses over newly married life with his wife (Ellen Barkin), and they hang out with their other friends &#8212; Boogie (Mickey Rourke), Fenwick (Kevin Bacon), Billy (Tim Daly), and Modell (Paul Reiser) &#8212; in a local diner.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Barry Levinson Films<\/li>\n<li>Coming of Age<\/li>\n<li>Ensemble Cast<\/li>\n<li>Friendship<\/li>\n<li>Marital Problems<\/li>\n<li>Mickey Rourke Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary argues that this &#8220;low-budget nostalgia comedy by writer-director Barry Levinson&#8221; &#8212; about &#8220;a group of young male buddies who hang out at a diner in Baltimore in 1959 at a time they have to make decisions about work, women, [and] their futures&#8221; &#8212; is responded to more by &#8220;female viewers&#8221; who perhaps &#8220;dated similar flawed, funny characters,&#8221; while men may wisely not &#8220;wish to identify with guys who have jerk streaks a mile long.&#8221; I&#8217;m not sure how many women did or still do enjoy this film, but I&#8217;m not among them &#8212; for exactly the reason Peary provides. While &#8220;the diner dialogue has rhythm and is well delivered by the talented cast&#8221;: <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Diner-Dialogue.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Diner-Dialogue-1024x580.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"363\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-89172\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Diner-Dialogue-1024x580.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Diner-Dialogue-300x170.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Diner-Dialogue-128x72.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Diner-Dialogue-768x435.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Diner-Dialogue-477x270.png 477w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Diner-Dialogue.png 1171w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8230; it&#8217;s not interesting; meanwhile, &#8220;the characters [are] dull and unsympathetic until they start tripping over words around females&#8221; (at which point I still&#8230; find them dull and unsympathetic). Peary notes that &#8220;the most original scenes have Daniel Stern hysterically telling off Ellen Barkin for mixing up his precious rock-&#8216;n&#8217;-roll collection&#8221;: <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Diner-Barkin.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Diner-Barkin-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-89174\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Diner-Barkin-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Diner-Barkin-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Diner-Barkin-128x72.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Diner-Barkin-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Diner-Barkin-480x270.png 480w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Diner-Barkin.png 1171w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>and &#8220;Steve Guttenberg giving his fiancee&#8221; (whose face we never see) &#8220;a football trivia test to determine if the wedding is still on&#8221; &#8212; but all these scenes do is reinforce what immature jerks these guys are. Why do we want to spend time around them, again?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Good use of authentic Baltimore locales<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Diner-Baltimore-Locales.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Diner-Baltimore-Locales-1024x570.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"356\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-89173\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Diner-Baltimore-Locales-1024x570.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Diner-Baltimore-Locales-300x167.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Diner-Baltimore-Locales-128x71.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Diner-Baltimore-Locales-768x427.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Diner-Baltimore-Locales-485x270.png 485w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Diner-Baltimore-Locales-1038x576.png 1038w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Diner-Baltimore-Locales.png 1181w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, though it&#8217;s worth a one time look for its historical relevance as a breakthrough film for many of these young actors (and Levinson as a director). <\/p>\n<p> (<span style=\"color:red;font-weight:bold;\">Listed in <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-static\/1001Movies.htm\"><em>1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die<\/em><\/a><\/span>) <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0083833\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/112\/diner#articles-reviews\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;We all know most marriages depend on a firm grasp of football trivia.&#8221; Synopsis: While a young man (Steve Guttenberg) in Baltimore prepares to marry his wife if she passes a football trivia quiz, his friend Shrevie (Daniel Stern) muses over newly married life with his wife (Ellen Barkin), and they hang out with their other friends &#8212; Boogie (Mickey Rourke), Fenwick (Kevin Bacon), Billy (Tim Daly), and Modell (Paul Reiser) &#8212; in a local diner. Genres, Themes, Actors, and&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=89170\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=89170"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92607,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89170\/revisions\/92607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=89170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=89170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=89170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}