Diner

A group of tight-knit childhood friends gather together during the Holiday Season, real world responsibilities clashing with rambunctious innocence, as traditional character flamboyantly illustrates, and habitual boredom is resolutely challenged.

Robert Sheftell (Mickey Rourke) overflows with appealing audacity which local residents find irresistible, apart from the bookies with whom he makes bets, without the requisite cash to cover them.

William Howard (Tim Daly) is considering a Masters but his old school sweetheart's pregnant (Kathryn Dowling as Barbara), and has a career of her own, and doesn't want to get married.

Edward Simmons (Steve Guttenberg) isn't as scholastically endowed, but will agree to get married, if his partner can pass his prick of a football test, what a fan, what a disgraceful romantic.

Laurence Schreiber (Daniel Stern) can't find things to talk about with his wife (Ellen Barkin as Beth Schreiber) and critiques her disregard for his record collection, still finding it more entertaining to chill out with his friends, selling TVs by day, doing whatever by night.

Timothy Fenwick Jr. (Kevin Bacon) can't grow up either although he's less responsibly attached or attuned, his older brother thinking he's up to no good, his unorthodox shenanigans proving his point.

They're chillin' in the same neighbourhood where they grew up, their plans hatched in a popular local diner.

Where eccentrics and stock characters alike.

Frequent the tastes of 1950s America.

Diner celebrates young adult antics as they reckon with cultural codes, innate desires to persevere carefree encountering disorienting sober perplexities. 

It's a classic case of trying to find something to do when everything's been done and what's left you mistrust, emerging from teenage triumph and adolescent angst to discern discrepancy with bewildered consequence.

Fortunately bucolic history and reliable community observe and interact, mistakes forgiven impulses soothed hypotheses tested ridiculousness nurtured. 

The limits tightening although not without friendly moments of clarity and avuncular understanding.

It's pretty strait-laced peeps striving to create with the domains of family, church, and football, rebellious instincts paradigmatically ensconced within nightly news broadcasts and 9 to 5 days.

Not without its charm through its general relevance to volatile small town/suburban life.

Boredom boxed, mischief manifested.

Resilient friendship.

Fries and gravy.  

Rain Man

Risk-fuelled high-stakes automotive accumulation is temporarily interrupted after the passing of a not-so-loved-one.

Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) flies to Cincinnati to settle accounts without delay only to discover he had a brother whose existence shakes things up.

Babbitt's somewhat of an insensitive callous jerk, and is much less interested in his newfound bro (Dustin Hoffman as Raymond Babbitt) than the cash left in trust for his well-being.

He's been living at a psychiatric facility for almost his entire offbeat life, and has serious issues with communication although he's quite gifted at math.

Charlie decides it's time they get to know one another and kidnaps him from the institution, hoping to take him to L.A in order to strike a lavish deal.

But Raymond refuses to fly so they're forced to hit the road, the backroads 'cross vibrant country, since they're much less bland and noisy.

Partner Susanna (Valeria Golino) can't stand Charlie's motives so she leaves shortly after they depart, and gentle Raymond's left in the hands of someone lacking firm compassion.

But Charlie isn't strictly obtuse and can make sincere adjustments, which their trip demands at times as they travel throughout America.

There's a realistic edge to Rain Man which isn't dulled by hypotheticals, it may seem impractical or otherworldly but it still makes sense as they travel on.

It starts out swift and headstrong full of blind instinctual tenacity, but slowly transforms through the art of play as alternative arrangements challenge preconceptions.

At times you wonder how Charlie could be so thick as proof after proof readily presents itself, but without ever having been trained to care for the differently abled, it's not shocking that his confusion persists.

Raymond doesn't have a say in the matter but makes the most of the sudden change, loudly expressing discontent at times, at others curiously contracting.

They wondrously come together as an off-beat non-traditional team, embracing unexpected roadblocks with surprisingly adept efficiency.

The realism prevents the use of words like "smooth" or "understanding", as Rain Man frenetically flows while life mysteriously presents itself.

I thought the final moments made sense bearing in mind uncertain self-sufficiencies, heartbreaking though they were, the alternative may have been much worse.

Not that Charlie wouldn't have given it a shot, he's not so bad after putting in some effort.

It's nice to see a film that promotes change.

Instead of grim hard-hearted despondency.