In 1982 Barry Levinson, who was primarily know as a writer (the Carol Burnet Show & screenplays for the Mel Brooks films -
High Anxiety and
Silent Movie in the 70's), made the first of his "Baltimore films" with
Diner. Levinson took a group of relatively unknown actors that included - Mickey Rourke, Steve Guttenberg, Tim Daly, Kevin Bacon, Daniel Stern, Paul Reiser and Ellen Barkin and created a film that, though set in 1959 in Baltimore, transcends time and place. Diner is short on real narrative plot and long on character and though there is the upcoming marriage of Steve Guttenberg's character, Eddie, and the football quiz he is requiring his fiancé to pass before hand, Diner is mostly about a group of friends and how they are dealing with impending adulthood. Again, it's all about the writing, (though I have read that Levinson encouraged improvisation among the actors) and scene after scene is filled with purely character driven dialogue that paints a vivid picture of these guys and their relationships.
Daniel Stern's Shrevie, the only one in the group who has already walked down the isle, shares a classic women are from Venus, men are from Mars scene with Ellen Barkin, who plays his wife Beth. Shrevie is outraged by the way his wife has mishandled his record collection. Not only has she placed a James Brown album under the "Js" but she's put him in the Rock-n-Roll section instead of R&B! Beth ask what he's getting so crazy about it's "just music." but to Shrevie it's so much more. He tells her that every one of his records is special and when he listens to them they take him back to certain places and times in his life. Movies do the same thing and in 1982, when this film was released, I had just finished college and this group of friends and their late night diner conversations reminds me so much of time I had spent hanging out with my own college friends and the conversations we'd shared (or at least how funny and quick-witted I wish our gab had been).
Diner is the film that introduced me to Barry Levinson, one of my favorite directors (one who's work will appear again on this list) and each time I watch it, I'm reminded of the fact that while plot might make films move it's character that makes them breathe.
