Book of Love (1990)

A friend delivers John Twiller greetings from a long gone high school girlfriend. This makes him open his school's yearbook - his "Book of Love" - and remember the old times, way back in ... See full summary »

Director:

Robert Shaye

Writers:

William Kotzwinkle (novel), William Kotzwinkle (screenplay)

Stars:

Chris Young, Keith Coogan, Aeryk Egan

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Chris Young	...	Jack Twiller
Keith Coogan	...	Crutch Kane
Aeryk Egan	...	Peanut
Josie Bissett	...	Lily
Tricia Leigh Fisher	...	Gina Gabooch
Danny Nucci	...	Spider Bomboni
John Cameron Mitchell	...	Floyd
Beau Dremann	...	Angelo Gabooch
Jill Jaress	...	Mrs. Kitty Twiller
John Achorn	...	Mr. Joe Twiller
Michael McKean	...	Adult Jack Twiller
Michael Cavalieri	...	Ubaldini
Gary Ellenberg	...	Drainpipe
Brent David Fraser	...	Meatball
Lewis Arquette	...	Mr. Malloy

Storyline

A friend delivers John Twiller greetings from a long gone high school girlfriend. This makes him open his school's yearbook - his "Book of Love" - and remember the old times, way back in 1956, when he was in his last year of high school and his family just moved to the town. He hung out with geeky Paul Kayne and tried to get the attention of Lily, who unfortunately was together with bully Angelo.

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Plot Keywords:

high school | bully | rock 'n' roll | buddy | masturbation | 

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Taglines:

Guys need all the help they can get.

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sexual content and language

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the book "Jack In The Box", Jack Twiller's experiences are followed from elementary to high school, while in his screenplay, William Kotzwinkle creates a younger brother, dividing these experiences between two separate characters.

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Goofs

The poster for East of Eden shows a picture of James Dean in his famous red jacket with the white t-shirt and jeans from _Rebel without a Cause (1955)_, a movie which came out on a later date.

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Quotes

Angelo Gabooch: Anybody touches my sister, I kick his slats in.

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Connections

Referenced in Be Kind Rewind (2008)

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Soundtracks

Sincerely
Written by Alan Freed and Harvey Fuqua
Performed by The Moonglows

User Reviews

Witty, Nostalgic and just downright Brilliant!

Here is a well worn scenario, I as the viewer, view the movie first and

then read the book thereafter. Cynics would cast judgement by saying that the movie could never hold a candle to the written source or vice versa is almost common place in today's transworld transference of book's into movie's.

For myself, i had always been a fan of this nostalgia genre, whereby characters hark back to the past so as to rekindle that something they think is missing. Movies like "Back To The Future" "Mischief" and "Stand By Me" with the exception of the first named the last two were good old fashioned trips down memory lane.

Based on the book "Jack In The Box" by the author William Kotzwinkle, who also wrote the script, The movie is a veritable cavalcade of what was best and somewhat naughty about being a teenager living in the 1950's, and who better to adapt the source novel than that of the original scribe himself, who one gets a sneaky suspicion the lead character is based.

Now the curious thing about this whole production is that looking at it now, compared to then, this movie represents a who's who, who went onto what in the genre field. Firstly the company behind the movie and the director Robert Shaye, produced (i make no apologies for missing out the obvious) the classic "Alone In The Dark" and "Xtro". The Scripter surprisingly penned the story/script for "Nightmare On Elm Street 4" (Theory installed here was a two picture deal, scribble a story for Freddy and then we'll translate the novel).

As for the cast Chris Young turned up in "Runestone" "Warlock 2" Danny Nucci appeared in "The Rock" and some other overblown Simpson/Bruckheimer productions. Finally John Cameron Mitchell transformed his offbroadway musical "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" into a really offbeat movie experience.

In the novel there exists only one main character, that of Jack Twiller, an extreme dreamer from another age, everything he went through in the book was by turns funny and very graphic, but what the author did, was split the character of Jack into two character's giving Jack in the movie a younger brother named Peanut, who discovers like Jack did in the novel all things sexual.

Regardless of what those jaded persons out there unknown might think of this movie and others like it, you just can't beat, it represents an age we children of another time (myself being a seventies child) never new. A great soundtrack, well rounded characters, outlandish scenes of major pornography allbeit of a PG13 nature pushing the envelope of an R rating.

To this day "Book Of Love" is a movie that i cherish dearly, discover it and discover yourself, set aside that critic and appreciate a movie where everything works.

A resounding 10 out of 10

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 February 1991 (USA)

Also Known As:

Jack in the Box

Filming Locations:

Glendale, California, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$596,131, 3 February 1991

Gross USA:

$1,382,259

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$1,382,259

Company Credits

Production Co:

New Line Cinema

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1