Since You’ve Been Gone *** (1998, Lara Flynn Boyle, Teri Hatcher, David Schwimmer, Joey Slotnick, Rachel Griffiths, Jennifer Grey) – Classic Movie Review 4578

Director David Schwimmer’s entertainingly eccentric and consistently amusing 1998 high-school reunion movie concentrates on a large ensemble of weird, frustrated or unresolved characters and the crazy scrapes and incidents they get into or up to.

A class of oddball former classmates arrives in Chicago for their class of 1987 10th anniversary high school reunion, arranged by the insufferably pompous MC, Robert Levitt, played amusingly by Schwimmer (who also directs). They include ex-students looking for a mate still, losing their baby, plotting practical jokes and showing off for the crowd. Joey Slotnick plays a sympathetic gay character, a singer-songwriter called Zane Levy.

Dramatically, in Jeff Steinberg’s screenplay, there is not much of a story or any real resolution, only a series of comic moments that suddenly come to a halt. But the film is still very funny throughout and the comic performances are excellent, with Lara Flynn Boyle and Teri Hatcher proving surprisingly adept at comedy. A series of unnecessary cameos includes appearances form Marisa Tomei, Liev Schreiber, Molly Ringwald and Jerry Springer (as the reunion photographer).

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4578

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