Singles (1992)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Cameron Crowe

Writer (WGA):

Cameron Crowe (written by)

Release Date:

18 September 1992 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Love is a game. Easy to start. Hard to finish.

Plot:

A group of twenty-something friends, most of whom live in the same apartment complex, search for love and success in grunge-era Seattle.

Plot Keywords:

Seattle | Pearl Jam | Twenty Something | Single | Grunge

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Bridget Fonda	...	Janet Livermore
Campbell Scott	...	Steve Dunne
Kyra Sedgwick	...	Linda Powell
Sheila Kelley	...	Debbie Hunt
Jim True-Frost	...	David Bailey (as Jim True)
Matt Dillon	...	Cliff Poncier
Bill Pullman	...	Dr. Jeffrey Jamison
James LeGros	...	Andy
Devon Raymond	...	Ruth
Camilo Gallardo	...	Luiz
Ally Walker	...	Pam
Eric Stoltz	...	The Mime
Jeremy Piven	...	Doug Hughley
Tom Skerritt	...	Mayor Weber
Peter Horton	...	Jamie

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for language, sex related dialogue and scenes of sensuality.

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:L | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Norway:10 (TV rating) | Australia:M | Finland:K-12 | Germany:12 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:11 | UK:12 (original rating) | UK:12 (video re-rating) (2003) | UK:15 (video rating) (1993) | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Seattle, Washington, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

In one scene Matt Dillon's character is wearing a Green River shirt which is a reference to Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament's band before they were in Mother Love Bone, or Pearl Jam.

Goofs:

Continuity: Debbie doesn't tell the "Expect The Best" clerk her name before he calls her "Debbie".

Quotes:

Cliff Poncier: That's a very nice hat you're wearing... and I don't mean that in an Eddie Haskell kind of way.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Hype! (1996)

Soundtrack:

Drown

A Nutshell Review: Singles (1992)

Love. Sex. Friendship. Companionship. These are the themes obviously explored in Cameron Crowe's early movie Singles, which revolve around the love lives of singles (naturally) living in a common apartment. We follow each of the protagonist Steve (Campbell Scott), Janet (Bridget Fonda), Cliff (Matt Dillon) and Linda (Kyra Sedgwick) through their ups and downs in dealing with the weird little emotion called Love.

Well, not quite. As we know early in the film, each have problems and their own peculiar viewpoints on the dating scene. We see Linda meeting and breaking up with a Spanish student she was so into, after seeing through his lies and sweet talk. It hurts, and she doesn't want to be hurt again. Steve too have had a bad experience, and (I can identify with this) swears off relationships for the next few years, deciding instead to focus on career. As Fate would have had it, these two will meet at the unlikeliest places and get into a relationship.

Cliff, an aspiring rocker, seemed to have taken his girlfriend Janet, for granted. And I think this is something that most people can identify with. When efforts go unappreciated, or when things go mundane, the question is, do you want to bail out? And when you do, what next? Would you give the ex another chance? If you do, how would you approach it? It's fun watching a movie that was made 13 years ago, and you wonder about how the initiating and sustaining of a relationship back then happened without technology which we are so used to these days. Back then, a mobile phone was a cordless one, and there is no such thing as an instant message, but an answering machine. Where Speed Dating was unheard of, but Video Dating was the rage (check out the funny Tim Burton cameo).

You wonder too about the career of the leads. Campbell Scott was noticed by many after his pairing with Julia Roberts in the movie Dying Young, but after this, seemed to have vanished into obscurity. And so has Kyra Sedgwick. Only Matt Dillon and Bridget Fonda are still around, somewhere.

Oh, the music. Peppered throughout the movie is the wonderful musical tracks that always seem to punctuate a particular moment succinctly. I like Tarantino and Crowe movies because music plays an integral part of the entire experience, and Singles too had excellent ballads blended with grunge rock, say, Pearl Jam (before they made it huge), which also made an appearance.

It's a beautiful, quirky little movie with excellent identifiable dialogue, music, humour, and a younger cast of stars whom we know today, thrown into situations that everyone in love would have experienced.