Singles

Writer and director Cameron Crowe’s widely over-rated twenty-something rom-com is about a group of friends (it anticipated the iconic ‘90s TV series of that name) was a hit in its day in part because of the popularity of grunge music which was just taking-off as the film, which features contributions by bands such as Soundgarden and Alice In Chains (but not Nirvana who, to their credit, declined to be involved), was released.  Fans of the “Seattle sound” will no doubt savour the film but others will find little else to justify the dutiful nature of the script and the sanitized depiction of a scene which for a time made Seattle the focal point of pop music.

Crowe, who wrote the screenplay for the hit teen movie, Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) ventured further into teen territory as a director with his first feature Say Anything (1989), then this film and signed off with what was to be his biggest hit, Almost Famous (2000). 

Crowe's depiction of the usual ups-and-downs of young love focuses largely on the relationships between Steve and Linda (Campbell Scott and Kyra Sedgwick) and Janet and Cliff (Bridget Fonda and Matt Dillon). The latter work together in a local café and though she dotes on the ultra-cool but none-too-bright Cliff, for him she takes second-place to his band, the unlovely-named Citizen Dick. Linda and Steve are 9-to-5ers with leaning towards environmental issues. A fifth character, Debbie (Sheila Kelley), is trying to get a boyfriend which involves her in activities that in those pre-internet days look decidedly more trouble than they are worth

Unfortunately even if Crowe’s script is in places amusing and Sedgwick, who looks like the younger sister of Julia Roberts (she is related to the former Warhol protégé, Edie Sedgwick), is undeniably photogenic, Scott is an anodyne presence and it is hard to give their romance much credence or be concerned how things turn out for them.

 

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