April 14: Something Wild

Melanie Griffith in Something Wild

Thursday April 14 2022 | Something Wild USA 1986

d. Jonathan Demme with Jeff Daniels, Melanie Griffith, Ray Liotta, Margaret Colin, Tracey Walter, Jack Gilpin, Charles Napier, John Sayles and John Waters. Colour. 113 m

Something Wild, his 1986 road-comedy-turned-thriller, is, in my opinion, the most under-appreciated great movie of the Reagan era. It starts off as a madcap genre film, with Jeff Daniels as a dork seduced into the orbit of Melanie Griffith’s hard-partying bad girl….When Ray Liotta, in his first major screen role, shows up as a dangerous criminal pest, Something Wild turns into a screwball version of Cape Fear, laying down a challenge to the hero: Does he have what it takes to enter the world of violence?” Owen Gleiberman

Links: AFI IMDB Wikipedia

See Also: Working Girl (Nichols, 1988), The Purple Rose of Cairo (Allen, 1985)

Series: Spring 2022 :: Jonathan Demme: Core 80s