While talking to a good guy friend recently I said something about standing outside his bedroom window with a boom box to get his attention (he doesn’t have a door buzzer), and he immediately shot back with a long rant against the movie I was referring to, Say Anything.

Very few women I know actually saw the Cameron Crowe directed film in theaters. It was released in 1989; I was four, and more interested in Mr. Rogers than Mr. Perfect. But now I can’t even count the number of times I’ve seen the film, and each time I watch it I fall in love with John Cusack’s character, Lloyd Dobler, again. This is why I couldn’t understand why my friend, we’ll call him S, loathed the film, and especially Lloyd, so completely. He said the film was cheesy, the plot unrealistic, and that the character I loved so much was moronic.

I’m going to call this disconnect between the way I feel about Say Anything, and the way S feels about Say Anything, “The Lloyd Dobler Factor.” What is it about the film that I love and that my friend just can’t wrap his straight male head around?

Lloyd loves Ione Skye’s character Diane so completely he braves her overprotective (and criminal) father to get her, and he does that adorable boom box thing (the only time a Peter Gabriel song will ever be okay) to win back her affection after they hit a rough spot. Lloyd says things like, “I gave her my heart and she gave me a pen,” and tells Dad: “What I really want to do with my life - what I want to do for a living - is I want to be with your daughter. I’m good at it.” What’s not to love? Read More »