Barry Levinson wrote and directed Diner, a film about six youths in the Baltimore of 1959; what is particularly nice about it is that, though autobiographical, it does not glamorize or sentimentalize the past—or only slightly, near the end, almost as an afterthought.
The boys, a couple of years out of high school, are getting ready for Eddie’s wedding to Elyse, whom we never see, and who is boning up for a football quiz her fanatical Colts fan of a husband-to-be will give her two days before the ceremony; if she scores under 65, the marriage is off. Now, I find this a little hard to believe, but Levinson buttresses his case well. Eddie is so crazy about football and the Colts that the wedding-party colors have to be those of his team; moreover he is a virgin (“technically,” as he defensively puts it), and leery of marriage because his pal Shrevie, having married his high-school sweetheart, Beth, is already bored with board, if not with bed. Beth does not share Shrevie’s passion for pop music, disrupts the alphabetical order of his precious records, and has very little conversation. At least football could shore up Eddie’s marriage.
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