November 5–12, 1998

movie shorts

The Big Chill

Lawrence Kasdan's popular and mostly overrated nostalgia-trip of a movie (1983) ripped off John Sayles' Return of the Seacaucus Seven in concept and inspired a passel of trends. Its solid-gold soundtrack laid the groundwork for movies as occasions to sell soundtrack CDs. Its talented ensemble cast featured actors in seemingly spontaneous interactions (football games, chowdowns, kitchen dances) who went on to make it large or peter out into not-so-greatness (Kevin Kline, Jeff Goldblum ["Everybody does everything to get laid"], Mary Kay Place, Glenn Close, JoBeth Williams, William Hurt, Tom Berenger, Meg Tilly, and of course, the corpse whose face was excised from the opening sequence, played by Kevin Costner). On one level, it asks what happened to pre-yuppie ideals (nonconformity and resistance). On another, it asks how friends might maintain or jump-start relationships when these ideals fall by the wayside of material security in the burbs. And on yet another, it asks how anyone gets through the complications of intimacy, pretended or for-real. Joy to the world. Or whatever.

-Cindy Fuchs