Something Wild (1986)
82%RT Audience Score: 69%
Awards & Nominations: 2 wins & 6 nominations
Boasting loads of quirky charm, a pair of likable leads, and confident direction from Jonathan Demme, Something Wild navigates its unpredictable tonal twists with room to spare
Something Wild” is a movie that’s like a rollercoaster ride – you start off with a meet-cute and end up with a murder, but in between, you get romance, regret, and revenge. It’s a screwball Hitchcock film for the indie culture of the 80s, and it’s playful and colorful, but it doesn’t shy away from the darkness at the end of the road. Director Jonathan Demme takes you on a picaresque joyride across the American landscape, and it’s still one of the best things he’s ever done. Just be prepared to enter a fun house and exit through a chamber of horrors – but it’s a heck of a ride.
Production Company(ies)
ITVS International, Kartemquin Films, P.O.V., American Documentary
Distributor
MGM/UA Home Entertainment Inc., Orion Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corp.
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
Tallahassee, Florida, USA
MPAA / Certificate
R
Year of Release
1986
-
Color:Color
-
Sound mix:Dolby Stereo
-
Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
-
Runtime:1h 53m
-
Language(s):English
-
Country of origin:United States
-
Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Nov 7, 1986 Original
Release Date (Streaming): Jun 10, 2008
Genre(s)
Comedy
Keyword(s)
starring Jeff Daniels, Melanie Griffith, Ray Liotta, Margaret Colin, Tracey Walter, Dana Preu, Jack Gilpin, Charles Napier, John Sayles, John Waters, directed by Jonathan Demme, written by E Max Frye, comedy, R rating, box office gross $6.4M, reviewed by Dave Kehr, William Thomas, Sheila Benson, William Goss, Pat Graham, Octavi Marti, David Nusair, Roger Hurlburt, People Staff, MPAA rating R, produced by Jonathan Demme, Kenneth Utt, MGM/UA Home Entertainment Inc., Orion Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corp., quirky, likable leads, confident direction, unpredictable tonal twists, free-spirited, uptight banker, tryst, modest adventure, high school reunion, harmless, actual husband, confronts, ride off into the sunset, romantic dream, screwball comedy, quirky lines, characters, earnest intensity, liberating behavior, soundtrack music, offbeat entertainment, improvised bits, free-flowing narrative, spot-on performances, story, direction, dark and uncomfortable, thriller, unlikely couple, on the run, provincial version, nightmare, dead ends, red herrings, sweetly desperate, near-alcoholic, old-shoe, resolutely unshockable mother, disconnected actor, earnest intensity, liberating behavior, dimly written, characterized entirely in terms of the actors’ performances, clothes, soundtrack music, no real payoff
Worldwide gross: $8,362,969
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $23,171,180
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,661
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 2,526,846
US/Canada gross: $8,362,969
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $23,171,180
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,360
US/Canada opening weekend: $1,825,717
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $5,058,493
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,102
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $7,000,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $19,394,818
Production budget ranking: 1,380
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $10,444,109
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): -$6,667,747
ROI to date (est.): -22%
ROI ranking: 1,519
Melanie Griffith – Audrey Hankel
Ray Liotta – Ray Sinclair
Margaret Colin – Irene
Tracey Walter – The Country Squire
Dana Preu – Peaches
Director(s)
Jonathan Demme
Writer(s)
E. Max Frye
Producer(s)
Jonathan Demme, Kenneth Utt
Film Festivals
Tribeca
Awards & Nominations
2 wins & 6 nominations
Academy Awards
All Critics (46) | Top Critics (12) | Fresh (42) | Rotten (4)
It’s not every day that someone goes Alfred Hitchcock one better, but in ”Something Wild,” Jonathan Demme has done it.
June 11, 2020 | Rating: 4/4
Dave Kehr
Chicago Tribune
TOP CRITIC
As an artefact from a period — the mid-80s — that produced almost nothing distinctive, this remains breezy fun.
June 11, 2020 | Rating: 4/5
William Thomas
Empire Magazine
TOP CRITIC
This is the Demme of “Melvin and Howard,” soaring back where he belongs, and long overdue too.
June 11, 2020
Sheila Benson
Los Angeles Times
TOP CRITIC
It begins with a meet-cute and ends with a murder, and sandwiched in between those emotional extremes are romance, regret and revenge.
May 17, 2011
William Goss
Film.com
TOP CRITIC
Conceptually and stylistically compelling under Jonathan Demme’s sometimes striking direction, this offbeat thriller is about an unlikely couple on the run.
July 6, 2010
Variety Staff
Variety
TOP CRITIC
Jonathan Demme’s picaresque joyride across the American landscape is still arguably the best thing he’s ever done.
December 26, 2006
Pat Graham
Chicago Reader
TOP CRITIC
‘Something Wild’ plays like a screwball Hitchcock film reworked for the freewheeling eighties indie culture. It’s playful and colorful but doesn’t shy away from the darkness at the end of the road.
June 3, 2022
Sean Axmaker
Stream on Demand
Something Wild is fun, at first. Then it becomes deadly and weird and engrossing. Predictable it is not.
June 11, 2020 | Rating: 3/4
Roger Hurlburt
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Buy a ticket to this whirligig of a movie at your own risk. You enter a fun house and exit through a chamber of horrors. But director Jonathan Demme provides a heck of a ride.
June 11, 2020
People Staff
People Magazine
Something Wild is an excellent movie about the fragility of people’s images. [Full Review in Spanish]
April 21, 2020
Octavi Marti
El Pais (Spain)
It’s a rather routine storyline that’s perpetually employed to striking, enthralling effect by Demme…
April 21, 2020 | Rating: 3.5/4
David Nusair
Reel Film Reviews
The end’s not unexpected, and the soundtrack’s overloaded with songs, but once Something Wild gets really wild — with Daniels and Griffith and Demme’s fringe comedy at their best — the movie makes its mark as offbeat entertainment.
February 26, 2020
Judith Crist
WWOR-TV (NJ)…
Plot
The uneventful life of the businessman Charles Driggs suddenly changes when he meets the wild and sexy Lulu. When he accepts her offer to drive him back to his office, she instead takes him out of town and on a trip, leaving behind his old life. Posing as a married couple, Charles and “Audrey” (which turns out to be Lulu’s real name) visit her mother and her high school reunion. At this reunion they meet Audrey’s violent ex-husband Ray, who has just released from prison. When Ray makes it clear that he wants Audrey back, that is when the real trouble begins.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Ray Liotta makes his film debut in Something Wild as the psychotic ex-husband of Melanie Griffith’s character.
Jonathan-Demme.jpg
