- 1991movierewind
Episode #13: He Said, She Said
Listen to Episode 13 of the Podcast here while you enjoy the show notes.
SUMMARY - He Said, She Said is about two local TV political commentators who are also dating and living together. Dan Hanson (played by Kevin Bacon) is more conservative and afraid of commitment; Lorie Bryer (played by Elizabeth Perkins) is more liberal and looking to marry. During the latest episode, Lorie throws her mug at Dan and storms off set. Now, each person gets to tell their side of the story.
Screenplay by Brian Hohlfeld; Directed by Ken Kwapis and Marisa Silver, and released on February 22, 1991.
FILM DISCUSSION
The movie starts with an animated title card that harkens back to the 1960s, and it retains that screwball comedy mentality.
After the mug throwing incident, the first part of the movie goes through the man's perspective and flashbacks. Again, we get a cartoony, classic vignette to illustrate the vibe.
Of course, perspective is everything - not just in the words, but in visuals.
So we have parts like this where Lorie clearly has the upper hand.
Over the course of the movie, you see things from each person's memory. Like how Dan remembered them laughing at the interpretive dance.
But Lorie had a different take.
The fantasy sequences come out of nowhere and add a little bit of uniqueness in the storytelling
But as you can see, the metaphors are far too obvious to be of much interest.
In the second half, we see Lorie's daydreams
Like putting themselves on stage during that dance
And jealousy of Dan's ex, imagining them overtly flirting with a whip and lingerie during lunch.
The filmmaking throughout was solid and there were a lot of beautifully shot scenes and ones with effective use of space like this single shot showing both sides of the mug throw.
The cast was large and largely useless. Nathan Lane was his typical hammy self.
Several scenes could have been completely cut - like the puppet psychologist.
We also spend a little bit of time to pause on the credits and talk about Erika Alexander who makes a brief appearance.
The movie tried to be a lot of things, including "When Harry Met Sally" with this unneeded coda with the older couple on the sofa talking about who won.
Awards Talk - None to speak of, but no matter who you believe, it's just a teensy bit tougher to get on the side of someone that would try saw an innocent VCR in half.
TRUE CRIME & POP CULTURE
This week was almost all about the music and there was a lot to cover
Top US Song
Whitney Houston - All The Man That I Need
Top UK Song
The KLF featuring The Children Of The Revolution - 3AM Eternal
We've talked about this band once before, but thanks to https://www.instagram.com/the1991project/, we got some additional details and context to relay to you in the episode
Top R&B Song
C+C Music Factory - Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)
You know you want to.
This week saw the annual Grammy Awards take place and Jon embarrasses himself with his clear lack of musical knowledge (yeah, he kind of remembers the Phil Collins song). Here's a link to the rundown if you want to see who won.
20 February – The 33rd Annual Grammy Awards are presented in New York, hosted by Garry Shandling. Quincy Jones' Back on the Block wins Album of the Year, Phil Collins' "Another Day in Paradise" wins Record of the Year and Bette Midler's version of "From a Distance" wins Song of the Year. Mariah Carey wins Best New Artist.
For some reason, we didn't watch the episode before recording, but this week saw a new Saturday Night Live starring Alec Baldwin with Musical Guest Whitney Houston who performed that song we linked up above. We watched it afterwards and thought it still held up pretty well. Peacock has the episode minus the music and without a couple sketches.
https://snl.fandom.com/wiki/February_23,_1991
SHOUTOUTS
This week we also wanted to take a moment to thank our friends Jasher and Hamish who run the "Collectanea of Everything"
They are two friends in New Zealand talking about everything pop culture. Please give them a listen.
RANKINGS & RATINGS
Nikki 1-5 star scale - 2 out of 5
Jon 0-4 star scale - 1 1/2 out of 4
Would you watch it again? - We would watch it with directors' commentary, but didn't find it entertaining enough to sit through it again without something like that.
If you want to watch He Said, She Said, as of this recording in April 2021, it’s available on HBO Max, Digital Rental, VHS, DVD. Check your local listings.
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