Today, John Cusack has become an eccentric character actor who headlines largely direct-to-streaming fare that you and I will never see but when I was coming of age he was an icon of sorts, an avatar for geeky good guys everywhere who dream of 'getting the girl' someday.
That's the Cusack I always had a soft spot for -- particularly in the film Say Anything -- where his ruddlerless romantic Lloyd Dobler represented a whole generation of lovable losers who have earnest intentions when it comes to romance.
His early films didn't exactly set the box office on fire -- in fact, with a couple of outliers, he's never really headlined many films that could be accurately described as hits. But the films had staying power, and his persona as a quirky, unconventional love interest endured.
Of course, his comedy films all had a happy ending -- his underdog heroes always triumphed -- and I think it sold me and a lot of guys like me a false bill of goods when it comes to how my teenage years would really play out.
This week, I revisited one of his beloved little '80s gems -- the 1985 teen comedy Better Off Dead. It opens with his character being dumped by his dream girl for a prototypical meathead jerk (he could have fit easily into Cobra Kai). It's an amusing, self-consciously surreal movie and there is absolutely no suspense in it because it's inevitable that Cusack's character will find a superior love interest (in this case the manic pixie dream girl is a cute French girl who barely speaks for much of the film's running time) who accepts him for him.
I'm not the first person to point out that while charming, his Lloyd Dobler -- had he not be played by an actor as endearing as Cusack -- would probably be considered a clinging, possessive creep by most women. Take the legendary "In Your Eyes" scene for instance.
Even if you haven't seen Say Anything you likely know the image: Dobler defiantly holding up a boom box, playing the song that played when he and his estranged girlfriend made love for the first time. It is romantic in a certain context, but if taken literally it's a pretty smothering move.
As a young person, I learned all the wrong lessons from the early Cusack classics. I became convinced that my 'niceness' would be a virtue and that if I was simply dogged and determined enough I could will the girls I had crushes on into liking me. Boy, was I mistaken.
First off, I wasn't and am not cute, so that made pulling off making social awkwardness appealing that much harder. But secondly, being obsessed with someone (in Better Off Dead, his dream girl's image is everywhere in his bedroom) didn't exactly make them enamored with you.
I'm of course being facetious. These adorable rom coms helped make me who I am -- and who I was -- which was someone hopelessly, pathetically optimistic about love. And I'm glad I idolized goofballs over jocks, God knows how I would have turned out if I didn't, but I wish I realized how unrealistic these movies were at the time.
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