Thursday, April 18, 2013

A Girl With No Name

Before the manic pixie dream girl, there was the girl who was too socially advanced to be noticed for her awesomeness. Molly Ringwold, of course made a career out of the archetype, and not far behind her was Shannon DeWinter.

Truth be told, I was Team DeWinter long before the "Team Blank" meme was a thing. Movies like Hall Pass Confidential, Acid-wash Dance Party and Gene Toxic were regular rec-room sleep-over viewing in my neighborhood.  And I'll even admit that there was a time when I could pretty much recite the entirety of We Gotta Get Out of this Place (The film named after the song, not just the song.) along with the movie - from the opening monologue ("People think that growing up in a brownstone across the street from Wrigley Field musta been the coolest thing a kid could do...." - And no, I didn't just cut and paste that from the quote page on IMDb.) through to the last lines of the Animals' song over the closing credits. And yeah, its a movie that is still seared onto my soul, but I first went to it because I had a crush on Shannon DeWinter.

I first saw A Girl With No Name under similar circumstances, and though it never spoke to me the same way as We Gotta Get Out of this Place, I did go back the next weekend and watched it again, just to see Shannon. I identified with Kevin - Marsha was smart, sexy, cool and had no idea just how fantastic she was... and that made her even more amazing.

The film has aged as poorly as any film from the 80s has, but it still has its moments - like this one...





                                         KEVIN
                           What's the deal Marsha Steele?
 
                                         MARSHA
                           Hey. How are you?
 
                                         KEVIN
                           Good. Good. Good to see you. You
                           look great.
 
                 She isn't sure she agrees.
 
                                         MARSHA
                           Heh. Yeah thanks. I, uh, yeah…
 
                                         KEVIN
                           Oh. Did I just make you feel
                           uncomfortable?
 
                                         MARSHA
                           No, no. I just - I'm not very
                           good with compliments.
 
                                         KEVIN
                           No shit?
 
                                         MARSHA
                           No shit.
 
                                         KEVIN
                           Me either. But at my core I
                           kinda like them.
 
                 A crack in her armor... and she kind of likes it.
 
                                         MARSHA
                           Yeah. Me too.
 
                                         KEVIN
                           Alright... You should. You must
                           get plenty of them.
 
                                         MARSHA
                                (No.)
                           Well…
 
                                         KEVIN
                           No way?
 
                                         MARSHA
                           No, really.
 
                                         KEVIN
                           Wow. Not even from - You must…
                           Who's the lucky guy who puts his
                           arm around you at the movies?
 
                                         MARSHA
                           Ah. No one.
 
                 A bomb.
 
                                         KEVIN
                           Okay... Geez, if I were single,
                           I'd have no choice but to ask
                           you for a date after that, eh?
 
                                         MARSHA
                           Yeah. I think you would have to.
 
                                         KEVIN
                           Well, I am single. Where'd you
                           want to go?
 
                                         MARSHA
                           Nicely played. You're a funny
                           guy.
 
                                         KEVIN
                           I hear that's supposed to be a
                           good thing.
 
                                         MARSHA
                           And you've got all the right
                           lines too, don't you?
 
                                         KEVIN
                           I'm not usually this clever.
 
                                         MARSHA
                           They're rolling right off your
                           tongue.
 
                                         KEVIN
                           I've practiced this conversation
                           for as long as I've known you.
 
                                         MARSHA
                           Now you're making me
                           uncomfortable.
 


I'll say it again - this movie hasn't aged well.  The hair... oh god, the hair.

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