Better Off Dead

Raskolnikov

January 17, 2001

Return

You've never heard of Better Off Dead???

It was quite the cult film for every group of friends I have ever had, so I guess I tend to assume that everyone within 5 years of my age has seen it.

It is a low budget teen age comedy. The basic set up is that Cusack is dumped by his girlfriend in favor of someone who is, (in her words) "stronger, better looking, and drives a nicer car". He then has various attempts to kill himself, all of which fail and make him even more miserable. It is actually quite light-hearted, with dozens of brilliantly bizarre touches, such as:

Vincent Schiavelli as the biology teacher, whose students sit in rapt attention, and are disappointed when they don't get homework.

Cusack's Mom, whose food crawls off the plate.

The psychotic paper boy ("two dollars!")

The chinese drag racer who learned how to speak English from Monday Night Football, and thus sounds exactly like Howard Cosell.

And much more. I strongly recommend a rental.