Like George Lucas’ 1973 stunning debut, American Graffiti, Barry Levinson’s Diner is a personally evocative coming-of-age tale, one in which the characters belong to the director’s generation.
Grade: A- (**** out of *****)
Unlike American Graffiti, however, “Diner” is an autobiographical film made by an insider who gets the texture right–and without nostalgia or schmaltz.
Set in Baltimore in 1959, the film captures the zeigeist of the era with authentic minutiae. Centering on young men who can’t communicate with women, it provides a look at the sex battle just before the sexual revolution. As Pauline Kael has observed, “Diner” presents the sexual dynamics in the last period of American history, when people could laugh (albeit uneasily) at the gulf between men and women, before the gulf became a public issue to be discussed. The movie isn’t so much about sex as about the quest for sex, the obsession with making out.
Showing true fondness for actors, Levinson brought sympathy and verve to a slice-of-life movie, full of interesting characters. Like George Lucas in “American Graffiti,”, Levinson helped to discover new talent: Mickey Rourke, Kevin Bacon, Daniel Stern, Steve Guttenberg, Ellen Barkin. Inspired by Fellini’s masterpiece “I Vitelloni,” “Diner” revolves around six men in their twenties who have been buddies since highschool. Though moving in different directions, they still cling to their late night sessions at the Fells Point Diner. The place is functioning like a comedy club, with the boys serving as storytellers taking off from each other.
Levinson doesn’t write like Neil Simon–his conversation is more natural and it’s composed of overlapping jokes that are funny without having punch lines. As a writer, Levinson shows a sensitive ear for nuanced dialogue with lyrical intensity that lift the lines right out of the situation and transcends it.
The boys go out on dates, but then quickly dash back to the diner, where they always have plenty to talk about. When the boys are out with girls they’re nervous, constricted, insecure; they can’t be the same with women as they are with each other. At the diner, where conversations roll on all night, they’re so relaxed that they even sound bright and witty.
Shrevie (Daniel Stern) has nothing to say to his wife Beth (Ellen Barkin), a crass, ordinary yet sensitive girl. Shrevie, who works in a store selling TV sets and refrigerators, asks her not to play with his records because she gets them mixed up. The records represent his sacred private world, and it’s slipping away from him. Shrevie’s outbursts leave Beth emotionally devastated and humiliated. Eddie (Steve Guttenberg) lives for football and the Baltimore Colts. He’s scheduled to get married on New Year’s Eve, contingent on one thing, that his fiancee pass a football-trivia test. Eddie wants to make sure that they will be able to communicate after they’re married. The bride’s football exam, with her father judging the fairness of the scoring, is a piece of loony Americana that echoes Jonathan Demme’s TV games in “Melvin and Howard.”
The most charismatic guy is Boogie (Mickey Rourke), a gambler who’s in trouble with his bookie. Boogie works in a beauty parlor but spends most of his time at the diner. He shows tenderness toward women, although he has no connection with them except for sex.
Loyal to his friends, Fenwick (Kevin Bacon) is a smart if self-destructive dropout who plays reckless jokes that get him arrested. When he’s alone, he watches the College Bowl TV quiz show, beating all the contestants. Fenwick is so infantile that he goes out with a much younger girl. His father won’t bail him out of jail; it’s his buddies who take care of him and shield him.
Levinson doesn’t pretend to know everything about his characters, and he avoids summing them up. Unlike most Hollywood youth movies, “Diner” is so richly detailed that the parents, who are left out of “American Graffiti,” are as multi-layered as their kids. Levinson has influenced many indie directors through his emphasis on dialogue rather than plot, characterization rather than visual style.
Unlike George Lucas, who’s always been enamored of toys, comic books, and special effects, as evidenced in the “Star Wars” and The “Indiana Jones” film series, Levinson is a “sociological” director, a storyteller with a fresh perspective and good ear, but one with less impressive visual perception.
A critical success that suffered from studio indifference, “Diner” later gained a cult following due to its disarming quality and sharp writing. With a growing positive word-of-mouth, through television showings and video rentals, “Diner” entered the collective consciousness and became a breakout kind of American artmovie.
Narrative Structure (Detailed Plot)
The movie follows a close-knit circle of friends who reunite at a Baltimore diner when one of them prepares to get married.
In 1959 Baltimore, a quintet of friends–Modell, Eddie, Shrevie, Boogie, and Fenwick–attend a Christmas dance before driving to their usual late-night haunt, Fell’s Point Diner.
On the way, Fenwick stages a fake car accident, to his friends’ annoyance. Boogie, a hairdresser and law student, has laid a $2,000 bet on basketball game, and declines his family friend Bagel’s offer to call off the bet.
Modell accepts a ride home from Eddie while the others pick up another friend, Billy, in town to serve as Eddie’s best man for his New Year’s Eve wedding.
Billy reunites with Eddie at his mother’s house, and they visit their old pool hall.
Shrevie, married to Beth and working as appliance store salesman, learns from Fenwick that Boogie is taking a date to the movies. At a screening of A Summer Place, with his friends watching, Boogie tricks his date, Carol, into groping him through the popcorn carton on his lap. She runs from the theater in tears, but Boogie convinces her it was an “accident” and their date continues.
Billy visits Barbara, a friend working at the local TV station.
At the diner, Shrevie discusses married life with Eddie, who is preparing a test of football knowledge for his fiancée Elyse, to determine if they are compatible.
Having lost his basketball bet, Boogie wagers with his friends that he can have sex with Carol.
Boogie and Fenwick encounter an equestrienne named Jane.
Meeting Barbara at church, Billy learns she is pregnant, in an unexpected night together; she tries to dissuade him from feeling obligated to marry her.
Watching College Bowl, Fenwick is knowledgeable and offers to help pay Boogie’s debt. Shrevie loses his temper at Beth for disturbing his record collection, and storms out.
Shrevie pulls Eddie and Billy from a screening of The Seventh Seal to corral Fenwick, who is drunk in the church’s Nativity scene in his underwear, leading to their arrest.
Eddie reveals that Elyse is taking his test the following night, and Billy faces down a belligerent drunk. Eddie, Shrevie, and Billy are bailed out by their fathers, but Fenwick’s leaves him overnight. They meet Boogie at the diner, and he deduces Eddie is still a virgin, while Billy and Barbara discuss their predicament at the TV station.
A lonely Beth visits Boogie at the hair salon, and he is threatened by his bookie, Tank. Learning Carol has the flu, Boogie reminisces with Beth about their past relationship, and they make plans for a tryst.
Shrevie, Fenwick, Billy, and Modell, along with Eddie’s and Elyse’s parents, await the results of the football test: Elyse fails by two points, and Eddie calls off the wedding.
Boogie brings Beth a wig, secretly planning to disguise her as Carol to win the bet, and drives her to Fenwick’s apartment. Fenwick and Shrevie hide in the closet to verify the encounter, but Boogie tells Beth the truth, urging her to work things out with Shrevie.
Eddie and Billy visit a strip club, and Boogie arrives at the diner, where Shrevie and Fenwick warn him Tank is waiting. Tank reveals that Bagel has paid off the debt.
Billy commandeers a piano to lead the entire strip club in rousing number, to Eddie’s delight.
Eddie decides to marry Elyse after all, and Billy assures Barbara he genuinely loves her. The wedding proceeds, themed around Eddie’s beloved Baltimore Colts: Shrevie and Beth reconcile; Boogie, Billy, and Fenwick bring Jane, Barbara, and Diane; and Modell delivers a heartfelt speech.
The movie ends as Elyse—whose face is not seen—tosses the bouquet, which lands on the friends’ table.
Cast
Steve Guttenberg as Edward “Eddie” Simmons
Daniel Stern as Laurence “Shrevie” Schreiber
Mickey Rourke as Robert “Boogie” Sheftell
Kevin Bacon as Timothy Fenwick, Jr.
Tim Daly as William “Billy” Howard
Ellen Barkin as Beth
Paul Reiser as Modell
Kathryn Dowling as Barbara
Michael Tucker as Bagel
Colette Blonigan as Carol Heathrow
Jessica James as Mrs. Simmons
Clement Fowler as Eddie’s father
Kelle Kipp as Diane
Impact
Several coming-of-age indies were inspired by Lucas and Levinson, although the influence manifested itself in the 1990s rather than the 1980s.
End Note
Though highly acclaimed by critics, Diner was a moderate commercial success, grossing domestically $14.1 million, and globally $23.2 million.
