BETTER OFF DEAD (1985)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
There is no easy way to describe or digest "Better Off Dead" except to say it is a low-key, highly outrageous cartoon that has no specific antecedents. In other words, there is nothing to compare it to, except maybe Hal Ashby's "Harold and Maude" and even that is a mute, debatable comparison at best.
John Cusack is Lane Meyer, a high-school student who is dumped by his girlfriend (Amanda Wyss) after trying out for a ski competition. Lane is so depressed that his clumsy suicide attempts make him feel even lower, or maybe they help him see the light. His parents do not listen to his problems. Lane's mother (Kim Darby) is in her own world of making food recipes that would make anyone gag, whereas his father (David Ogden Stiers) is concerned about the black Camaro on their front lawn that hasn't been driven in months. To make matters worse, Lane's little brother (Scooter Stevens) is very likely an evil genius with his wooing older, Playboy-like women, and creating a space shuttle (!) out of spare appliance parts. I also cannot forget to mention the Asian kids who mimic Howard Cosell and entice Lane to race them on the road, or the next-door neighbors with their French foreign-exchange student (Diane Franklin) who keeps her eye on Lane. Ah, and the merciless paper boy who wants his two dollars.
"Better Off Dead" is based on the actual experiences of the film's writer-director Savage Steve Holland. Savage Steve Holland has claimed in an interview that he did go through a bad breakup, and that there was an attempt at hanging himself in the garage only to be interrupted by his mother, not to mention a kid demanding his two dollars for his paper route. The movie, though, is mostly a fragmented series of comical skits that are repeated and delivered with the expected payoff each time, such as Lane's suicidal attempts or the dreaded snowy hill which Lane is trying to vainly succeed at skiing without falling. There are two claymation sequences with burgers that is so loony, it will make you laugh. Kim Darby's raisin-sludge might make some vomit.
The movie has a randomness and anarchic, off-kilter comic spirit that is far removed from any of the practically homogenized 80's teen comedies. Not all of "Better Off Dead" works but it proves that John Cusack, when not propped up as a romantic leading man, lends to the chaos with his uncertainty and discomfort in an absurd, strange universe. Makes one wonder why nobody considered casting him as Holden Caulfield. That is okay because "Better Off Dead," in its themes of alienation and not fitting in to his environment, is Cusack's Holden Caulfield.
