Better Off Dead (dir. Savage Steve Holland, 1985)
Lane Meyer (John Cusack) is a high school student and mediocre skier who is in love with the idea of his girlfriend Beth (Amanda Wyss), much to the consternation and confusion of his parents Al and Jenny (David Ogden Stiers and Kim Darby). When Beth dumps him for Roy Stalin (Aaron Dozier), the captain of the ski team, which Lane completely failed to qualify for, our hero is driven to suicidal despair. Every attempt to kill himself fails due to luck and happenstance, but everything else in his life might kill him anyway, not least of all his attempt to ski the K-12 peak to win Beth back, as if Monique (Diane Franklin), the nice and pleasant French foreign exchange student, weren’t right there.
Probably the best of the eighties ski comedies and a stealth Christmas classic, Better Off Dead is very good at capturing the heightened emotions of teenagers, be that Lane’s overreaction to a breakup or the various flights of fancy and bursts of surrealism that pepper the film. Who among us could forget that newsboy who wants his two dollars or the fairly racist gag about the Asian racer who sounds exactly like Howard Cosell? It is darkly funny, though not to the extent of something like Heathers. It does, however, feature multiple grown adults asking Lane if it’s alright if they try to ‘date’ Beth. I also learned for the first time that the creep that Monique lives with as part of her exchange program is Dan Schneider, who is allegedly [1] a total monster. Still, it’s pretty good!
[1] Definitely, but legally speaking we must use allegedly.
oliveresque 