Like The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, I can’t imagine what prompted me to put UP THE SANDBOX (1972) in my Netflix DVD queue, given that I’ve seen it and didn’t care for it. I’m glad I did, though, because I like it a lot better now. I’m not sure why unless it’s that I appreciate the frustration Streisand’s Maggie feels better than I did on first viewing.
Maggie has two kids and as the movie opens, she learns #3 is on the way. Her academic husband Paul (David Selby) doesn’t help much. Maggie has ambitions to write but when does she have the time? Life consists of caring for her family and hanging out with fellow moms at the playground, plus occasionally going to faculty parties where she feels out of her depth among the more educated women.
Her solution after learning about her new pregnancy is to slide into fantasies (I described it to someone as The Secret Life of Wanda Mitty). Shoving her pushy mom’s face into a cake. Confronting Paul’s assistant (Barbara Rhoades) about whether they’re having an affair. Helping black militants blow up the Statue of Liberty. It’s the fantasy aspect that sunk the movie for me originally: they felt arbitrary and unconvincing and it’s not always clear where reality ends and fantasy starts. In her commentary track, Streisand explains how it makes sense but it’s like the old rule about comedy — if you have to explain them, they don’t work.
Maggie’s real-world domestic struggles and frustration, however, worked well and watching this time that made up for the unsatisfying fantasy aspect. Streisand gives a terrific performance too. I’m still not in love with the movie but I like it a lot better.Conrad Bain, Isabel Sanford, Anne Ramsey and Ji-Tu Cumbuka appear in supporting parts. “You should move to New Jersey — the air is nicer and nobody writes ‘LESBIANS UNITE’ in the elevator.” 
In the years since it came out, SAY ANYTHING (1989) has become infamous for a single scene: John Cusack’s Lloyd standing outside Diane’s (Ione Skye) house with a boom box playing their song, refusing to accept that she’s done with him. It’s held up as the embodiment of the guy who won’t say no or respect the woman’s boundaries — but rewatching I don’t think it’s that bad. It’s also well cast, with Lili Taylor, Bebe Neuwirth, Eric Stoltz and Jeremy Piven in supporting roles.
Lloyd and Diane are both graduating high school. He’s a slacker with ambitions of becoming a kickboxer; his parents live overseas. Diane’s a brain (“In the body of a game show hostess.”) who wins a prestigious grant to study abroad; her father (John Mahoney, better known as Frazer’s gruff dad on Frazer) is dedicated to being the wind beneath her wings. Lloyd’s crushed on Diane for years and seizes one last chance to ask her out. She accepts, they hit it off but she’s leaving for Europe at the end of the summer — does their love have a chance? And if she has to choose career or love, which will she pick?
I enjoyed this when I first saw it but might never have watched it again if You Couldn’t Ignore Me If You Tried hadn’t pointed out how much it inverts typical gender roles. Diane’s the one with a promising career path, Lloyd is happy in the traditional woman’s role of supporting his partner; rather than her give up her future for love, he gives up his (admittedly it’s not much of a future). While I can understand why the boom box scene bugs many people, I don’t find it half as bad as, say, Emilio Estevez obsessively pursuing an uninterested Andie McDowell in St. Elmo’s Fire. The boom-box scene is over the top but Lloyd does take no for an answer: when he gets no response from Diane, he walks away and gives up. It’s only her later family drama that brings her back to him. “The girl made me trust myself.”
#SFWApro. All rights to images remain with current holders.
