A perfect movie: Arthur Barron's JEREMY

 Robby Benson, Glynnis O'Connor, Leonardo Cimino. Dir. Arthur Barron, UA, 1973

Fun City Editions BLURAY reissue

I always call myself an '80s kid, and that's wrong. I went to high school in the '80s, after which I refused to grow up. That's not an '80s kid.

I'm a '70s kid. I didn't start to see lots of good movies until the early '80s, in my early teens, but that doesn't make me any less 3 in 1970, 13 in 1980.

What bothers me about being a '70s kid is that, after 50 years of movie fandom, I've missed a ridiculous amount of films from my childhood, still. I mean, I knew Robby Benson as the teen hearthrob of ONE ON ONE and ICE CASTLES, not as a young actor who got a couple lucky parts. I emerged from the '70s without hearing of Arthur Barron's JEREMY, or even that Benson had done good work prior to his teen idol period in the late '70s.

The guys at Pure Cinema Podcast and 70 Movies We Saw in the '70s started talking up the Fun City Editions reissue of JEREMY for Bluray a few months ago, so I had at least an inkling tonight I would see a different Robby Benson, but, I mean, damn.

First off, I don't wanna be the "Robby Benson is me!" guy, but in 1979, six years after JEREMY, my haircut and shade looked almost exactly like Benson's, I wore the same sweater-vests and courds, and similar glasses. I took piano, then. Jeremy plays classical bass. I had no idea how to talk to girls, which seemed to be what every guy was doing, and neither does Jeremy, who consults his more experienced - maybe - friend.

None of that make Jeremy and me one, but they did help me like him even before he spoke. Within a few minutes of that, I said, aloud, "Oh, I LIKE him."

That good feeling never wavered afterward. Jeremy doesn't follow the expected character arc of a coming-of-age picture. He doesn't get popular and turn into an ogre. He doesn't get sand kicked in his face for being an orchestra-nerd. In his small, arts-intensive school, Jeremy's reasonably popular. He's not a nerd who triumphs. He isn't a victim. He's a pretty cool teenaged musician who wants a girlfriend, gets one, falls in love with, and loses her. He's a familiar story, but not a familiar character. Benson's Jeremy isn't a walking, talking trope, he's a sweet, kind, genuine kid.

Then Barron intoduces Glynnis O'Connor as Susan and it's double trouble. O'Connor matches Benson's unassuming, deprecating character beat for beat, but not in a competitive way. Neither takes scenes from the other - doing that would kill their chemistry together. Which makes JEREMY so perfect. Jeremy and Susan feel like a real, brandnew young boyfriend&girlfriend, fumbling through insecurity, attraction, awkwardness, and desire. O'Connor endeared herself exactly as Benson did, at once and totally.

I called JEREMY a perfect movie. I meant it. Every part of this picture feels truthful. Early on, it struck me that the parents either don't hear what their kids tell them, like Jeremy's dad, or lean on their kids for emotional support, the way Susan almost plays surrogate wife to her dad. Jeez, I said, that's my generation's life story, raised by clueless, emotionally inappropriate people who didn't want kids in the first place. I trusted this film from its first moments, and never felt betrayed.

I see no good reason to drill down into the story. It's as simple as stories get. That's to the good, because it relies on the characters to make it compelling drama. Benson, O'Connor, and all the supporting cast do just that. When life refuses to bow to their love, I remembered what that felt like. Their experience doesn't come across as a performance. It looks and sounds and feels like what I recall. They elicited real empathy from me. I have felt their pain. Dressed much the same.

I seldom mention the specific package, but this Fun City Editions issue of JEREMY deserves praise. I might never have heard of or seen this movie, and now I feel as if JEREMY is a real missing-link movie of my childhood, one of the best movies I've seen this year. The Features here rock. I'm half-hearing the commentary by Kat Ellinger and the late Mike McPadden as I write this, and even half-heard it's great. The other features look interesting to me - that doesn't happen a lot. Do not miss JEREMY, or this reissue. So worth it.