When Mickey Rourke has to tell you that you're behaving like a jerk and to knock it off, you know you have problems. That would be at the opening when Boogie (Rourke) tells Fenwick (Kevin Bacon) to stop knocking out the windows in the men's bathroom with his bare hands, with Fenwick not angry, but instead drunk and giggling the entire time.
These two are part of a group of young men in their early twenties who have known each other all of their lives and are at a crossroads where they'll likely part, not due to any fundamental disagreement or falling out, but just because that's what adults do because of career choices, marriage, and diverging interests. Deep down they know this and they are fighting it in various ways, but in the meantime they gather in the titular diner to eat greasy food and talk into the night about nothing.
Everybody knows why Barry Levinson sets everything he writes and directs, even his series Homicide about a bunch of homicide detectives, in Baltimore. He was born there. He loves the place. But he was 17 in 1959 when this film is set, not 23, so the time period is a bit of a puzzle. Maybe to put this in the time that he was 23 - 1965 - would require too much of the revolution in culture that was going on at the time, and that's not what he wanted the film to be about.
The central focus of the film is Eddie's (Steve Guttenberg's) upcoming wedding. Eddie wants this thing yet he fears it for any number of reasons - the loss of independence, the loss of his virginity which he has never managed to lose up to this time, the eventual loss of this core group of friends. Eddie's fiance, Elyse, is never shown. You see the back of her at the wedding, you hear her voice during "the test", but that's all. I guess that makes her an indescribable presence that is going to change everything. And about that "test" that determines if she and Eddie will marry - over football knowledge? What woman would agree to such nonsense? I would see it as an absolute sign that my husband to be is trying his best to find any reason - even a ridiculous one - to get out of the wedding. But I digress.
I'd recommend this one for all of the little scenes, the big picture, the roster of stars who were just starting out, and the nostalgia for the late 50s which is perfect with a great soundtrack.
