The Big Chill

The shower scene with the saggy little titties is so embarrassing.

I want to watch the one time William Hurt was sexy.

He was very sexy in Verna: USO Girl, r2.

r3 Is G a he now?

r4 - ?

Watch "Return of the Secaucus 7" while you're at it. It's streaming on various platforms. Kasdan denies being influenced by it, but you can judge for yourself.

I wish they would do a cut with the Kevin Costner material, I would be interested to see if it adds or detracts from the story.

I guess William Hurt's death prompted this thread, huh OP?

OMG William Hurt died? 😢

R9 Is obviously NOT Marlee Matlin.

If there is peen I'll watch it with you.

I watched that with my mom years ago, I hated that movie.

I remember my parents watching it when I was a child in the 80's.

Yes, r9...

I just watched this again. Mary Kay Place is so good in this. Glenn Close is insufferable. Kline is good. I loved Meg Tilly, too bad she's reduced to mostly eye candy, but she has a real poignancy. And Tom Berenger is actually very enjoyable. I feel like Hurt and Williams both had such unsympathetic characters, but did the best they could with the roles. Goldblum is manic, as always.

Good scene with the Temptations song "Aint Too Proud To Beg".

r8 no we were posting about William Hurt last night before his death was announced.

This movie is interesting only as a Boomer time capsule. Glenn Close allowing her husband to be used as a sperm dispenser was fucking disgusting. I couldn't stand the way they coyly smirked at each other after he fucked the other woman. Just thinking about it makes my skin crawl.

I saw it in the theater when it was first released. I liked it, but not as much as I thought I would. Then it made its run on HBO and I realized what a piece of shit it was. Jo Beth Williams was SO pretty, but so unlikable. Jeff Goldblum was just as bad, Kevin Kline's horrible southern accent was so forced, and the shower scene with the curtain pulled back just enough to see Glenn Close's nasty titties was badly staged. Now I lump it with St. Elmo's Fire, both featuring a group of grating stars trying desperately to be charming.

SPOILER REACTION

I enjoy the joke of "The Big Chill".

Chloe (Meg Tilly) utters the line that reveals the joke - "He (Alex) thought that maybe he should have accepted that Rutledge Fellowship".

In an exercise of false, self-serving, self-flagellating, "now, we're nothing but sell-outs"; a thing to say about themselves that actually makes them feel better, they also, in that process, use their friend Alex as the measure that they've failed to live up to.

Then with that line, Chloe reveals that he believes he should have sold- out, too, thereby pulling the rug out from them being able to use Alex as their measure in their pseudo posing about being sell-outs.

They know that for all their "woe is us, we're no longer idealistic activists", they also know they wouldn't change their cushy lives for one moment in service to that now.

It's deliberate by Lawrence Kasdan to reveal all of that and I give him some credit for doing so.

I get why "The Big Chill" is disliked by so many. Who needs to sit around and watch a bunch of privileged whiners in an 80s drawing room comedy? I think, though, that, Kasdan's joke is worth it.

R18=fat frau who’s husband dumped her for the Russian Pilates instructor and who’s clearly never gotten over it.

I fucking hated JoBeth Williams’ character in that movie.

I've always thought Glenn's character allowed Kevin Kline's character to be a sperm donor was because she had had an affair/one night stand with Costner's character.

I loved this movie as a kid, but it has not aged well at all. The soundtrack is way too good for it.

R21 I'm a 31 year old man and I'm only a little fat. The sperm plot was fucking disgusting and the lighthearted way they handled it made it even worse. Maybe you enjoy the sight of Glenn Close smirking about jizz but I don't.

[quote] Good scene with the Temptations song "Aint Too Proud To Beg".

Ugh. No offense intended, bu I hated that. Kevin Kline kisses his Temptations' album. Kline was the worst, IMO.

Wow R25, you’re quite the self-righteous little priss.

Agreed that Jo Beth Williams character (Karen!) is unlikable but Williams is excellent playing her.

She gets her comeuppance by having to go back the boring Richard after things get awkward between her and Sam after they fuck.

All the male actors in this are sexy in such an 80s/90s rumpled way that doesn’t exist in films anymore.

I though Glenn’s arrangement was to help her friend but also to one-up her at the same time: I’m so unafraid that you’d be able to steal a man from me that I’ll even let my husband fuck you without being worried.

Years ago I had a dream (that I fully remember) about a remake of it for gen xers. I was in charge of casting it and I was begging them to consider Robert Downey Jr and being told he was too old. Then I was pissed because they wanted an all grunge soundtrack and I wanted Britpop

We approve.

I saw it in high school and was disappointed, I was too young to relate to the characters. Watched it 15 years later and enjoyed it. But haven't seen it lately to see how it has held up. When I was younger my favorite character was William Hurt.

It was very polarizing when it was released. I expected to dislike it, but thought it was OK and I think it was mostly the music. The acting, writing and directing was a mixed bag. Much of it seems like a tv movie in its flatness and cliched dialogue; the scenes with the cast as a group didn't seem like they'd ever been fiends. Hurt was basically playing himself and had some of the best lines, which made him stand out. Absent the soundtrack, it would have been an awful film and I wonder when either Kasdan or the studio recognized they needed to save this mess with something and then settled on the music.

The film is a high gloss, cartoonish takeoff on "Return of the Secaucus Seven". That low budget, modest film made a lot of money, established John Sayles as a filmmaker, and created a template for a lot of indie films--telling a modest story around a small group of people making use of a small number of locations. It was one of the films that launched the indie boom of the 80s and 90s. Sayles' characters were not jaded and were never really radicals, although they had been part of protests---they were like actual people who lived through the 60s, whereas "Big Chill" made a heavy handed statement using people who really don't exist. Kasdan initially claimed not to have seen "Secaucus Seven" which was unlikely, given how much it was discussed at the time. Later he said that he "might have seen it". Kasdan's best films like "Body Heat" were somewhere between knockoffs and homages.

I have wanted to watch The Return of the Secaucus Seven but it's only streaming with paid service.

Glenn Close's character did have an affair with Alex. Harold discusses it when running.

The cast of Return of the Secaucus Seven was ugly though. They all looked like that Licorice Pizza girl

As if Jeff Goldblum, Mary Kay Place or JoBeth Williams were beauties. Glenn was merely handsome.

This movie was the origin of the dancing in the kitchen to a 1960s r&b hit trope that was repeated countless times in 80s/90s tearjerker movies.

Kevin Kline is unbearable in this movie. Actually, KK is pretty much unbearable in any drama. JoBeth Williams character reminded me of my mother. Her inability to bond with the other woman felt very true in a film that for the most part was very contrived.

Just rewatched it. It is a classic and it really invokes strong feelings when u watch it

That county home looks like it could be used on a movie set today. Hardly anything looks dated.

The whole cast is wonderful and all the men are beautiful. Oof. Especially Kevin Kline in those running shorts

But what about Glenn’s titties in the shower?

Yea, Glenn’s titties were no bueno.

Actually all the females paled in comparison to the male actors. Meg Tilley’s character acted mentally challenged and autistic.

But, it’s such a wonderful snapshot of early 80s and how boomers were at the time. How college life in the 60s was so important to being successful and life long friendship we’re formed. The youth movement was a real thing and how real yuppies in the 80s behaved.

Today, taking on college debt is a fool’s game.

R42: The film is a bunch of cartoonish characters. It has as little tondo with the 80s as it does with the 60s.

There is a character named Karen. Nuff said.

It's odd to see people smoke in those old movies. Nothing says sexy more than kissing an ashtray.

People still smoke today

I tried to find the movie “A Small Circle of Friends.” No luck.

[quote]This movie is interesting only as a Boomer time capsule. Glenn Close allowing her husband to be used as a sperm dispenser was fucking disgusting. I couldn't stand the way they coyly smirked at each other after he fucked the other woman. Just thinking about it makes my skin crawl.

This movie did inspire one of the best SNL sketches when Kevin Kline hosted in the late 80's. A twist ending referencing one of Glenn's more recent movies at that time.

R47 There was a Twitter thread during the beginning of COVID of people begging for a streaming service to buy Circle of Friends. It’s held up in some kind of copyright hell.

R47 and anyone else who wants to see "A Small Circle of Friends," it's on YouTube. Not sure how long it usually lasts before copyright claims spur removal.

thanks r50 now if I could stream Return of the Secaucus Seven for free.

r50 they all look like 30 year olds and I keep hearing that Air Supply song, music by Jim Steinham.

Steinman that is.

Remember to watch the show in a cheesy French accent.

I could never get through "Small Circle of Friends". It was a flop and critical failure. It was the kind of movie that Hollywood had made badly 10 years before and worse in 1980. Given the title, they should have used the Phil Ochs song of a similar name for the theme--probably too low budget to buy the rights.

Kevin Kline acts with his nose. I always watch his nose.