Jimmy Reardon (1988)

Jimmy Reardon: Directed by William Richert. With River Phoenix, Ann Magnuson, Meredith Salenger, Ione Skye. A charming womanizer has to find a way to get $80 to elope to Hawaii with his one true love, or else go to his father’s chosen business school.

“This movie features one of the most despicable lead characters, and that character narrates. Itu0026#39;s hard to see how this even got green lit.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSure, a lot of it rings true for a teenage boy, but bleh. Like, Jimmy getting drunk and doing the obnoxious poetry to the crowd. Thatu0026#39;s not pleasant to watch, and frankly, practically everybody including Jimmy would pretty much decide to forget it ever happened.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFrom a practical standpoint, the studio tried to sell it as something it wasnu0026#39;t, and that can be seen right on the cover art. That looks like a fun happy silly movie, while itu0026#39;s actually a sometimes dark drama.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe writer/director, Richert, released a Directoru0026#39;s Cut with himself narrating instead of Phoenix. This makes the movie even worse, because it reminds you that a mature adult wrote and directed this about himself and yet canu0026#39;t seem to fathom how horrible the character Jimmy is.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhen it was Phoenix narrating, itu0026#39;s easy to imagine this was just a bad misfire of a teen film. But with Richert– talk about an out of control ego.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAfter all, aside from being a total a**, at one point Reardon is borderline assaulting a female.”