(Evidently, Nantucket is just a bit lower than Ibiza on the list of places to Party Hardy!)
CAST: John Cusack, Demi Moore, Joel Murray, Bobcat Goldthwait, Tom Villard, Curtis Armstrong, Matt Mulhern, Kimberly Cooper.
DIRECTOR: Savage Steve Holland.
WARNING: Some SPOILERS and highly questionable summer vacations straight ahead…
Magic Time can come unexpectedly. It can happen during an awesome party when you have the perfect guests, music, and food. It can happen during a vacation when you meet the most interesting people and have the times of your lives. It can happen during something as mundane as a family reunion when everything just clicks with you and your relatives. It can happen during a road trip with the perfect traveling companion where neither of you knows where you’re going - but you both know it’s going to be fun getting there.
For a lot of us, Magic Time is also that summer between high school graduation and, well, the rest of your life. I spent mine hanging out in Palm Springs and learning several things: (1) the desert is fucking hot; (2) the desert is fucking dusty; and (3) and there are a lot of hot (literally and figuratively speaking) people in Palm Spings. That summer was a memorable one for me, and I can’t look at a cactus plant without suddenly being reminded of it.
“The Summer After High School Graduation” is special because it’s that limbo between being a kid and being an adult. Sort of a last opportunity to whoop it up before facing the headaches of college, working, and paying for your own place. It’s that wonderful moment, like standing on the top of a mountain - and you think you can see forever. Except that summer doesn’t stretch forever. Eventually, it ends. And you’re left with memories. Best thing to do, then, is to just enjoy it and have fun.
The hero of our next review, the mid-80’s comedy ONE CRAZY SUMMER, has a problem with enjoying things and just having fun. He is Hoops McCann (John Cusack), a brooding recent high school grad who is planning to apply to the Rhode Island School of Design. Except he’s having a hard time coming up with a project that fires up his passion.
Enter best friend George Calamari (Joel Murray), who convinces Hoops to join him, his nerdy kid sister Squid (Kristin Goelz), and their butt-ugly dog, to go visit their Grandma on the popular vacation island of Nantucket for the summer. George thinks Hoops will find his muse on the island - and translate that into a really killer project that will get him into the school.
Turns out that Hoops meets his muse far earlier than that. Enroute to the dock to catch the ferry, Hoops and his gang gets tangled with Cassandra (Demi Moore), a musician being pursued by a bunch of bikers for stealing their money - which Cassandra maintains is really hers. Hoops, being the gent that he is, lets Cassandra hitch a ride with them to get away from her belligerent buds. Turns out she’s also headed to Nantucket to help her grandfather save his house from foreclosure.
Upon arriving on Nantucket, Hoops and George hook up with the following weirdos: (1) the Stork twins (Bobcat Goldthwait and Tom Villard), two dorks working on schlock film currently being shot on Nantucket called FOAM II about a killer dolphin with rabies - uh, huh; and (2) Ack Ack (Curtis Armstrong), the son of a militant asshole who wants him to join the services - or else. With these three new additions to Team Hoops, our boys get settled for a summer of partying.
Unfortunately, Hoops discovers that Cassandra’s gramps has passed away - and the bank will foreclose on his house within a week if she doesn’t cough up $3,000 in back mortgage. Being the good-hearted dude that he is, Hoops recruits his buds to help Cassandra save her house. Even it means going up against the island’s First Family of Assholes, the Beckersteads. Aguilla Beckerstead (Mark Metcalfe) is intent on buying up all the property on one part of the island so he can create - what else? - condominiums.
To make matters worse, Teddy Beckerstead (Matt Mulhern) has also declared a jihad on Hoops because his slutty girlfriend Cookie (Kimberly Foster) has been making googly eyes at our hero. So the fact that Hoops has also allied himself with Cassandra - whose house is the last property the Beckersteads need to fulfill their fucked-up fantasy - is like tossing gasoline on an already-smoldering stack of old newspapers. In other words: WATCH OUT!
So… will Hoops and co. be able to save Cassandra’s house? Or will Aguilla get underhanded in trying to steal the house? Will Teddy beat the tar out of Hoops for attracting Cookie? Or will Teddy just take Cookie to a hotel and make it clear who her Daddy really is? What happens when Hoops realizes that the only way to save Cassandra’s house is join the annual Nantucket regatta that Aguilla and Teddy also have their eye on? Is it “Game Time” on Nantucket Island? Why all the angst and anger and drama, goddamnit? Isn’t this supposed to be “Magic Time?”
Whatever. I’m still trying to purge the image of that Killer Dolphin with Rabies…
BUT, SERIOUSLY: There have been many films dealing with that special time called The Summer After High School Graduation. The best in this sub-genre are THE GRADUATE (1967), the classic about a rudder-less recent grad who has an affair with a much older woman, and BREAKING AWAY (1979), a lovely near-classic about a small-town Indiana teen obsessed with bike-racing and Italy, who tries to win the love of an aloof girl over the course of the summer.
ONE CRAZY SUMMER is nowhere near the league of those two. However, it is still a pleasant enough and reasonably enjoyable comedy about living it up during the last truly carefree time of one’s young life. A lot of the humor, frankly, is on the corny side. But the cast is clearly having a blast and you can’t help but kind of smile at some of their antics. Some highlights: (1) Stork Twin # 1 (Bobcat Goldthwait) dressing up as Godzilla - then discovering he can’t get the costume off and subsequently terrorizing a party at the Beckerstead estate; (2) Stork Twin # 1 recounting a story from his youth about being beat up on the playground; and (3) the climactic regatta race at the end where we discover that our heroes have hijacked Teddy’s car for boat parts. You’ll see what I mean.
What keep ONE CRAZY SUMMER from sinking lower than an average rating is its game and talented cast. This was one of John Cusack’s early roles, and even here it is clear that he has the leading man chops to carry a film on his broad shoulders. Same with Demi Moore who, as we all know, went on to become the highest-paid actress in Hollywood for a little while in the early 90‘s. As she hints here and later proves in GHOST (1990), Moore has the ability to get you to feel what she’s feeling just by looking at you. It’s this intriguingly empathetic (and empathic) ability that marks Demi Moore’s special ability as an actress.
The supporting cast is bright and likable. Joel Murray (Bill Murray’s real-life brother) turns in a winning performance as Hoops’s best pal, George. Listen closely to Murray’s line delivery - there’s a hint of big brother Bill’s droll breeziness. Clearly, there is a family resemblance here - literally and figuratively. Bobcat Goldthwait provides the film’s best laughs as one of the spastic Stork twins. Tom Villard and Curtis Armstrong nicely round out Team Hoops, and they are all believable as friends. Meanwhile, Mark Metcalfe, Matt Mulhern, and Kimberly Foster are all sufficiently hissable as the members of Team Beckerstead.
All in all, ONE CRAZY SUMMER may not be anything special as a comedy, but as an entry into the sub-genre of The Summer After High School Graduation, it’s decent entertainment with a nice message at the end: Friendship Is The Best Investment One Can Make For One‘s Future…
