Something Wild

Jonathan Demme was quietly responsible for three of the most frightening psychopathic characters ever put to film, Ray Liotta here as Ray Sinclair, Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs and, of course, Kenny Chesney as himself in Kenny Chesney: Unstaged.

One of the most underrated movies of all time. The DVD cover is terrible, but inside lies a genre-defying mini masterpiece on par with Demme's later Silence of the Lambs. I am absolutely serious.

So that's what Jeff Daniel's butt looks like.

A tale as old as time. Man runs out on cheque, woman sees and gets man to travel across state lines with her, and then enter into a dark journey that's both screwball and dangerous. If you have probably seen this tale a million times, by this point.

Demme's tune-pulsing rom-com is, redundancy aside, a wild ride. Daniels and Griffith are sensation as two opposites on a car ride from hell. Enter Ray Liotta, and the crew is hugely entertaining. A forgotten gem in the wash of late 80s/early 90s romantic comedies.

I really liked the way this started off like a lonely executive's fevered fantasy, only to take a much darker turn. The film's greatest strength is its honesty about the consequences of risk taking. While there might be a payoff in the end, there are often painful experiences that change the tenor of one's original daydream.

Two thirds through the film, Demme shifts gears from light comedy to very dark drama. What a weird movie!

This is some pretty cool shit. No nostalgia--saw it when I was 35. Had no idea where anything was headed most of the time, and that's a good thing. Mixed on Ray Liotta. Although he doesn't show up until about halfway through, and initially injects even more life into what is already a pretty frantic, scattered film, the plot he brings with him kind of puts the brakes on a lot of the fun. Still, good stuff. I want to frame the soundtrack and hang it on my living room wall. A work of art, it is.

A throwback screwball comedy that partially confuses itself with a mid-period David Lynch film (via Ray Liotta channeling Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet/everyone in Wild At Heart).

Not the best movie but it's one of my favorites. It starts off as a light-hearted romantic roadtrip comedy... until things get dark and the film goes completely off the rails halfway through when Ray Liotta shows up. Worth watching just for Ray Liotta's (debut) performance alone.

The first half of the movie is terrible, it's a quirky romance between a yuppie and a crazy girl. But then Ray Liotta shows up and does a lot of Ray Liotta things and the movie shifts gears and becomes a lot more interesting.

_Something Wild_ balances between studio production and hip independent film perfectly. Daniels is amazing in this. Soundtrack cover pretty much all great black music styles. Road movies are generally fun and this one is above average as they come. I wish the story had a little more power, but never the less it is highly rewatchable and fun flick.

it's been a while since I saw it, but I remember being impressed with Daniels and Liotta, and thinking this was one of the best performances I'd seen Melanie Griffith give. The ending turns dark, which is alright, but I thought the tone was somewhat inconsistent. I'd like to see it again.

Good script and great acting from Daniels, Griffith and Liotta.

With its terrible love story and bafflingly unfunny dialogue, this supposed update on the classic screwball formula fails on near every level. The characters’ actions never make a whiff of sense, and while Daniels and Liotta aren’t bad, Griffith has absolutely none of the attributes required to make Lulu/Audrey in any way a fun, alluring or sympathetic character, and instead makes her a fairly contemptible figure throughout. It has no message, no point and next-to-no value as a piece of cinema.

The film starts out as a modern variation on a screwball comedy. Jeff Daniels is the straight-laced Jimmy Stewart with a real spark of life to him. He's picked up by Melanie Griffith's bohemian Carole Lombard who hooks him sexually and then ropes him into coming to her hometown to pose as her husband at her high school reunion. Then her actual husband shows up, only it's not Ralph Bellamy. It's Ray Liotta in full Richard Widmark mode and the film becomes a thriller.

cuffing season

watchable

It start off as a enjoyable altenative romcom, But the mood shifts after the show stealing debuting Ray Liotta makes his entry and the movies becomes much darker and violent. But Demme somehow make this tonal shift work. My general dislike of Melanie Griffith plus that her character is a prototypical manic pixie dream girl (in the first half) kept me from liking this more, I guess.

I can appreciate the movie, the characters - Griffith - they're crazy! I Love me some wild women. The ending was a bit darker, but not really because it never really becomes dark after you've seen it to the end, it's just not the preferred tone of the movie or so it seems. I'm not so sure about my feelings towards Daniels because... Don't know man, maybe I've associated his face to some TV shows or something. It's an entertaining movie.

Some cool music choices, but for the score which screams "dated 80s NYC". I do appreciate the rollercoaster structure and rocket pace - we learn about the characters as we go along. Unlike many films whose content is on-the-surface (take everything for face value), this feels almost entirely symbolic. Each character is an archetype : the uptight businessman, the free-spirit dream girl, the edgy, ex-con ex-boyfriend. This inhibits it from actually resonating, other than as mere screwball

ortalama bir filmin demme'in elinde hayli keyifli bir seyirliğe dönüşme halini anlamak için her filmini defalarca izleyebilirim, ama öyle ki; sanki onlarca filmlik kariyeri olup da tüm filmografisi içerisinde gerçekten övgüye mazhar tek bir filmi olan yönetmenlerin o tek filmlerinden oluşuyor gibi demme'in filmografisi, yani hepsinin tadı çok farklı ve bunu anlayabileceğimi sanmıyorum. ayrıca griffith iyi bir oyuncu olmadan da zirvede olabiliyormuş.

Sure, the relationship isn't healthy in any way, and it's got some pacing issues, but the film is a fun ride that escalates really quickly in the second half. Plus it's got a soundtrack of the wild variety (eyyyy)

2/3/18 Upgrade Replay

There are a lot of elements that could easily make this abrasive and a failure, from the cliché characters to the tonal shifts to the messy narrative. But despite all that I really enjoyed it. Griffith and Daniels both hit just the right tone with their characters, achieving both the broad comedy to make the film funny and the nuanced characterization to make the m compelling leads. Liotta is also excellent with a character that shouldn't work, but does.

28/5/22 - RIP Ray Liotta, intense performance that set his career alight

77.500

Apparently enjoyment of this film is predicated on finding Daniels & Griffith likable.

Griffith really puts the manic in "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" here. Her adventures with Daniels are quite fun, but when Ray Liotta shows up and starts yelling a lot it gets a bit boring.

The cast didn't work for me.

watched: 2013, 2014, 2018, 2021

It's the cousin of Scorsese's superior After Hours, but Something Wild still brings enough darkened chaos to hold its own. Top notch soundtrack, too.

74.875

Pretty much an average film. Daniels, Griffith, and Liotta were all good, but the story is just kind of meh. Demme does a good job though.

This movie took an unexpected direction near the end. I enjoyed it!

One of those movies that really takes you for a ride. Excellent acting by all. (two times)

The ending was not so bad-at first-then it got dragged out and sucked losing about 5 off of what I would have given it. I watched it because it had Melanie and I almost always like Jeff Daniels so I'm not being biased.

Funny, quirky and really charming action comedy. Daniels and Griffith had amazing chemistry together and really made you feel for their characters. I had a lot of fun watching this.

A horror-drama-comedy yuppie angst film filled with great characters and an unpredictable plot. Demme found his way to connect with the viewer through a quirky, twisted narrative, and he's not dumb, he does that with help of a great soundtrack.

The first half of this picture is one kind of movie. The second half is a very different kind. Surprisingly, both halves work, and complement each other very well

This is probably my favorite film from Jonathan Demme. Great cast, half the movie is a wacky road trip romp the second half a surprisingly bleak melodrama. Demme manages to combine both elements into a very satisfying and well rounded 1980s comedy drama.

demme, liotta and daniels. and miss bird-voice boobies!

Great work by a cast at the top of their game..Be on the lookout for a head turning psycho portrayal by a young Ray Liotta.

Surprisingly quite good.

This is actually a much better movie than how I'm rating it. I just had such a bad reaction to the ending the first time I saw it (when I was maybe 15 years old), that I can't watch it today. Some of Melanie Griffith's best acting though.

One of those "crazy impulsive girl teaches uptight square how to loosen up" movies along the lines of Bringing Up Baby or After Hours, but eventually it throws in some surprises and reveals a little more depth in both the lead characters. Having said that, however, it still doesn't do a lot for me. The situations are fairly interesting, but Daniels doesn't bring a lot to the table and I have an extremely low tolerance for Griffith. The soundtrack is also really overrated.

This is one of those films that has a very good reputation and I expected to like more than I did.I dug the first half; how you're not sure where the film is taking you, but It turns into a more conventional and less interesting film with the introduction of Liotta's character. I also appreciated the off-beat rhythm, the main cast and how Demme gives attention to music and artists, but in the end it just didn't do that much to me.

Pretty good.