Rent Singles (1992)

Love Hurts - Singles review by Steve

Amiable comedy-romance which is typical of its decade but better than most. Nineties hotshot Cameron Crowe revises a few of the character types from his script for Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), except the kids are now five years older and starting work while learning the rules of enduring love...

There are agreeable ensemble performances as the twenty-something metropolitans who play the dating game with the stakes bigger than in High School. They live in condos for single occupants and do yuppie jobs. Kyra Sedgwick is the standout as a lovelorn ecologist who only recently got burned.

The trump card is to set their standard rites of passage experiences in Seattle, in the emerging grunge scene with a soundtrack which features an impressive A-Z of future stars (except for Nirvana!). Matt Dillon is the idiot stoner/slacker in a local band stringing along Bridget Fonda's compliant good-girl. 

The rocker laments metal has become lifestyle music. Crowe must know this is the film equivalent. Nothing much matters, the dialogue is fun but incredibly obvious. It's just a conventional lifestyle picture- a beer commercial- for '90s gen. x kids who may now be ready to revisit for reasons of nostalgia.