A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon
Kino Lorber
Original Release Date Feb. 26th, 1988
Written by William Richert, based on his novel "Aren't You Even Gonna Kiss Me Goodbye?"
Directed by William Richert
Starring River Phoenix, Ann Magnuson, Meredith Salenger, Ione Skye, Louanne, Matthew Perry
Language English
Purchase yours HERE from Kino Lorber
by "Doc" Hunter Bush,
MovieJawn Staff Writer & Podcast Director, cohost of the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast
The Movie: Bad
From a technical standpoint, A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon is perfectly fine. The direction is competent, action is clear, and on all technical fronts (lighting, blocking, etc.) the production is solid. Its story is an insufferable mess however. Ostensibly, the film is about Jimmy (River Phoenix) spending one night racing around late '50s / early '60s Chicago trying to raise $80 (which would be around $900 today) for a plane ticket to Hawai'i, to follow "the love of his life" Lisa (Meredith Salenger) to college. That's essentially what the plot blurb on the packaging says, but the film itself would have you believe that it's actually about a young man trying to earn mutual respect from his father (Paul Koslo).
The problem is that: it's not actually about that. Jimmy's relationship with his father, while definitely an issue, is just part of the white noise of Jimmy's constant complaining. Jimmy complains about his parents, his friends, rich people in general (note: his friends, including Lisa, are all wealthy and Jimmy's family seem to be doing just fine), and especially women. If I was in the business of pithy, one sentence Letterboxd reviews (I am not), I would say A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon is Dirty Dancing (1987) meets The Catcher in the Rye, with Jimmy Reardon being the same flavor of insufferable little shit as Holden Caulfield.
Jimmy fancies himself a poet, psychoanalyzes his friends to the tune of Sigmund Freud (ever heard of him?) and claims to be "in love" with Lisa, but still sleeps with anyone who'll lay down. Now before you break out the pitchforks and torches, I understand the concept of an unlikeable protagonist. I enjoy plenty of them, because the work around them, be it a film, a novel, or what-have-you, isn't as nakedly in love with them as this flick is. Writer / director William Richert, adapting his own novel "Aren't You Even Gonna Kiss Me Goodbye?", looks at Jimmy the way Milhouse looks at Bart Simpson: he's a bad boy, and that's oh so cool.
Now back to daddy: I'm technically about to spoil the end of the film, which I never do, but I have two justifications: 1) the film is not actually about this relationship, and 2) it opens with an internal monologue from Jimmy that tells you where the two stand at the end of the film, before flashing back, so you kind of already know. And away we go: Jimmy learns a secret (which I won't spoil) about his father in the penultimate scene, one which his father would rather nobody get wise to. So, when Jimmy calls Dad to come pick him up, and they end up riding the train home together, they reach their seeming mutual respect.
It goes like this: Dad says that he thinks maybe Hawai'i is the right choice for Jimmy after all, and Jimmy responds that he was actually thinking of going to Dad's alma mater. They're each, outwardly choosing to be the bigger man, to the point that Jimmy's internal monologue picks up again to pat them on the back with the actual quote "Now we are men together." Except they aren't. Both of these decisions are not motivated by respect, never mind love, but fear. Dad is afraid that Jimmy will spill the beans if he stays, and Jimmy is afraid that he'll run into Lisa if he goes. A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon is a fascinating examination of toxic masculinity and misanthropy, but I honestly don't think it knows that.
The Packaging: Good
The packaging here is fine. The case is Kino Lorber's standard, slightly sturdier Blu-ray case with a cardboard sleeve depicting the same image as the cover, a promotional photo of River Phoenix surrounded by costars Meredith Salenger, Ione Skye, and the enigmatically mononymed Louanne. Weirdly, the cover image looks more like a magazine ad for Beverly Hills 90210 or Melrose Place than from a film set in the era A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon takes place. That aside, it's a perfectly cromulent image, it just feels entirely disconnected from the movie within.
The Audio + Video: Good
I honestly think A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon looks and sounds really great. The colors have a nice saturation, the light balance is solid (most of the back half of the film takes place at night) with soft haloing around the lights and plenty of depth to the shadows. There's a comfortable level of film grain, but it never dominated my attention, even in the scenes with the lowest light. Sonically, the film is mixed and balanced well.
There's a hilarious moment where, having learned that Lisa's other suitor (Jason Court) is also a poet, but has a career plan, and future prospects in addition to already coming from money, Jimmy feels so insecure that he leaps up on stage at the dance to perform an improvised slam poem of his own. It ends with him intentionally alienating the room, before noticing that Lisa is leaving. When he shouts "Lisa!" and jumps off the stage, they added dramatic echo, which was not present at all during his or anyone else's previous time at the mic.
Special Features: Average
This release has a commentary track with film historians Paul Anthony Nelson and Perri Cummings, which, with their easygoing rapport, was a good listen and well as being very informative. Beyond that, all that's included here is a bunch of trailers. Most of them are for similar high school / college romantic something or others (I'm sure some lean more dramatic while others tend more towards comedy) and then, at the bottom of the list a conspiracy thriller called Winter Kills (1979). This threw me for a moment before I realized Winter Kills, which I've never seen, was also written and directed by Richert. It looks interesting and also seems pretty well-regarded, so I've actually added it to my watch list. Just because I don't think the man made a good coming-of-age movie, doesn't mean I believe he doesn't have something worthwhile in him.
In Summary: Borrow it from the library
Listen, I know I came down hard on this film and, if you're a fan, that's cool. I mean no ill will, I just bounced off of this immediately. River Phoenix, and honestly the majority of the cast, are great and deliver what I think the screenplay demands of them, I just cannot get on the wavelength of William Richert's loving depiction of this bratty, pretentious fuckboi. But I kept with it because I wanted to see if he would change, or learn, or if the film would in any way condemn his character.
If I was feeling charitable, I think perhaps you could make the argument that all of this is intentional; that Jimmy's grousing about problems entirely created in his head is akin to Patrick Bateman in American Psycho (2000); a glimpse into a diseased mind. But my allergies have been giving me hell and I don't feel like being at all charitable. A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon never approaches the heightened levels of that other film, never even hints that there is any level to read it on beyond the surface. I think it might be worth watching to see a very thorough performance from a talented actor gone too soon, but I don't think it deserves a spot on anyone's shelf. So, support your local library if you want to give it a go.
