Savage Steve Holland was 25 years old when he wrote and directed BETTER OFF DEAD (his first film) and it’s telling.
Throw in the worst parents possible, two Japanese Howard Cosell-impersonating drag racers, a gacked-out Curtis Armstrong (read: genius) and the paperboy from hell (“I WANT MY TWO DOLLARS!”) and you have a deliriously batshit crazy coming-of-age bugnuts dream of a movie. Despite his love for Monique, Lane races his ski nemesis down the treacherous K-12 mountain to win back the heart of his ex-girlfriend. Following multiple failed attempts to commit suicide he falls for the beautiful French exchange student, Monique (Diane Franklin). Amongst the Class of 1985 was a film that mined the very best elements of its compatriots embracing surrealism, irreverence, humanism and inventiveness in equal measure: Savage Steve Holland’s gloriously demented, BETTER OFF DEAD.īETTER OFF DEAD’s plot is as bonkers as the film itself… After being dumped by his girlfriend for the asshole-jock captain of the ski team, Lane Meyer (John Cusack) would rather die than be single. WEIRD SCIENCE, REVENGE OF THE NERDS, FLETCH, PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE, A CHRISTMAS STORY, THE BREAKFAST CLUB and RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD all burned through theatres marking both the beginning and the end of an all too brief window that was as funny as it was wholly unique. The worst was typified by a shitty president, shitty “rock” (Poison, Motley Crue, Stryper – kill me) and shitty lycra, while the best was embodied by the greatest year of film comedy ever: 1985.
The 80’s were the best of times and the worst of times.
Moderated by Jonah Ray and Kumail Nanjiani in Person