Take Me Home Tonight
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Like Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused (1993) and George Lucas's American Graffiti (1973), this is one of those coming-of-age comedies that centers on a single wild night. But Linklater and Lucas were both writing from wellsprings of personal nostalgia; Jackie Filgo, who wrote this new movie, and Topher Grace, who stars and cowrote the story, are both too young to have been out partying on Labor Day 1984, when the action takes place. As on their TV collaboration, That '70s Show, the time period never extends much farther than hairdos, costume design, and soundtrack hits. Grace plays an engineering grad, slacking off as a video store clerk, who resolves to win the heart of his high school crush (Teresa Palmer), now an investment banker; their trite boy-meets-girl arc (he lies about his job) is occasionally offset by some potent comic misadventures involving his rambunctious pal (fat and fiercely scowling Dan Fogler, who deserves better roles). Michael Dowse directed; with Anna Faris, Lucy Punch, and Michelle Trachtenberg.
By J.R. Jones
Credits
Director:
- Michael Dowse
Cast:
- Topher Grace
- Anna Faris
- Dan Fogler
- Teresa Palmer
- Chris Pratt
- Michael Biehn
- Jeanie Hackett
- Lucy Punch
- Michelle Trachtenberg
- Demetri Martin
- Michael Ian Black
- Bob Odenkirk
- Angie Everhart
- Jay Jablonski
- Edwin Hodge
- Nathalie Kelley
- Wade Allain-Marcus
- Robert Hoffman
- Seth Gabel
Writers:
- Jackie Filgo
- Jeff Filgo
Producers:
- Ryan Kavanaugh
- Jim Whitaker
- Sarah Bowen
- Dany Wolf
- Topher Grace
- Gordon Kaywin
- Tucker Tooley
