What’s Aged the Best?
Turner’s voice; fire, heat and sweat; sex montage; score; Corvette; gazebos; boathouses; grabs; Danson; small touches; yearbook; Florida; influence; awkward dinner
In the discussion (12)
Approx. transcript time · 00:19:42Read transcript
- Turner’s voice contributes to a sensory film world of smoke, fog, sweat and clothing peeled from bodies.
- Recurring fire, heat and sweat motifs and the escalating before-and-after sexual montage are praised.
- John Barry’s score is praised.
- Ned’s 1964 Corvette Roadster is praised as almost a character, compared with Hurt’s Porsche in The Big Chill.
- Gazebos and boathouses are praised as useful movie settings.
- The two penis grabs are singled out, with a reportedly wider open-matte version making the window-side grab clearer.
- Pre-Cheers Danson’s playful dancing and physicality are praised, though his energy seems to belong in another kind of movie.
- The awkward three-person dinner is enjoyed, but inviting a stranger to join a married couple is considered implausible by another view.
- Small touches of lightness are praised: the boy smoking in the bathroom and the sassy waitress create a lived-in town.
- The yearbook resolves the mystery through the true name, photograph and stated ambition to become a con artist.
- Florida’s thick, gothic humidity is considered crucial despite a reported earlier New Jersey setting.
- The film’s influence on sweaty thrillers is praised through Wild Things and Heaven’s Prisoners.