Popular reviews

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  Review by Patrick Willems ★★★★ 2

  A movie that explores one of my greatest fears: having no cash at a restaurant that doesn't take credit cards

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  Review by David Sims ★★★★½ 3

  better to be a live dog than a dead lion

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  Review by Calum Marsh ★★★★★ 7

  Not really a review of this movie but RIP Jonathan Demme all the same. 

  There is a wonderful moment in Something Wild, Jonathan Demme’s freewheeling screwball road movie and just about my favourite movie of all time, in which our newly cut-loose yuppie hero, Charles Driggs (Jeff Daniels), in covert hot pursuit of the girl he loves (Melanie Griffith) and the ex-con tough (Ray Liotta) who stole her from him, installs himself in the parking lot of an all-black church in Virginia with a snack and a pair of binoculars, training a tired eye on his marks as they lounge about the pool at a motel across the road. Exhausted, Charlie takes a nap — only to be stirred from…

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  Review by BRAT ★★★★ 3

  stayed up for my first midnight screening at the new bev and WOOHOO this was a blast!! first shot of young jeff daniels make me go “oh nooo he’s hottttt!” 

  exceedingly charming performances and funny + compelling script that was written by a guy who was still in film school ……. which i suppose explains the occasional messiness, but somehow the several tone shifts work. like melanie griffith’s character, the story is impulsive, capricious. whirlwind romance IS messy, especially when you’re following your most basic instincts. 

  you know when you’re so deliriously beguiled by someone that you’d follow them anywhere? like, if they pulled up in a stolen car you’d get in with only the slightest of hesitations, because if…

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  Review by Timcop ★★★½ 3

  Never go with Ray Liotta to a second location.

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  Review by fran hoepfner ★★★½

  makes a really compelling case for bringing some rando normie with me to my high school reunion

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  Review by Will Menaker ★★★★ 1

  A fun, funny road trip, A++ soundtrack, Melanie Griffith with Louise Brooks hair, complete roster of Jonathan Demme weirdos in cameo roles, John Waters, Ray Liotta complete psycho energy, a delight. Simple as.

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  Review by Branson Reese 6

  Man I wish the world kept moving in this direction instead of in the direction of a hollowed out Chipotle. What are you gonna do, though. That's life.

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  Review by Sally Jane Black 12

  Yes, the soundtrack is great.

  The scene where Charlie shows up at the diner and confronts Ray, though, made me so fucking angry. He shows up, and instead of saying, "hey Lulu, let's go, ditch this guy," he speaks to Ray. He says he's taking her back; he spars with Ray over Lulu as if Lulu isn't even there, as if she is literally an object he has to acquire. It's tiresome. Lulu tries hard to redeem the film a few minutes later, throwing Charlie out of the car by the railroad tracks, but of course it doesn't end there. It lets him off the hook. That act of independence is swallowed.

  And there's a fight scene with the death…

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  Review by laird ★★★★

  Three reasons:

  1. Ray Liotta: underrated kicker of the silver screen.

  2. I would have gone to my 10 year reunion if The Feelies were playing.

  3. All the ordinary people that populate this world.

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  Review by Mike D'Angelo ★★★★½

  89/100

  [tweets from 2011; I also wrote this Scenic Routes column]

  Quintessential Demme Moment #1: Liotta steals a car, has to deal with toys left in it by owner's kids.

  Quintessential Demme Moment #2: New tenant tells Daniels Griffith no longer lives there, calls him back, asks if he knows what her rent was.

  (The latter was most likely in Frye's script, but it's still essence of Demme in the way it suggests a teeming world beyond the story.)

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  Review by Joe Lynch ★★★★★ 1

  Masterpiece. Definite example of “offbeat” cinema with Demme finding his narrative voice and Griffith & Daniels creating THE couple of the 80’s (sorry Nora). 
  Ray Liotta’s first and most terrifying role.
  Also: shot near my childhood hometown in Long Island!
  To me? A perfect film.