Product Details

• Actors: Bridget Fonda, Campbell Scott, Kyra Sedgwick, Sheila Kelley, Jim True-Frost
• Directors: Cameron Crowe
• Writers: Cameron Crowe
• Producers: Cameron Crowe, Art Linson, Kelly Curtis, Richard Chew, Richard Hashimoto
• Format: PAL
• Language: Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0)
• Region: Region 2 (Read more about DVD formats.)
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Run Time: 99 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (67 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00007L3SD
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #689,220 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Singles" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

A romantic comedy set against the background of the Seattle grunge scene of the late '80s and early '90s, Singles contains music and/or cameo appearances by the music groups who defined the movement, including Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Mudhoney, Screaming Trees, Mother Love Bone, and others. (For a definitive documentary treatment of the same pop-music phenomenon, see Hype!) The plot is really a series of interconnected stories about various Seattle singles--some of who are part of a couple, at least temporarily. Matt Dillon plays a longhaired rocker whose girlfriend (Bridget Fonda) is considering breast enlargement surgery. As Steve and Linda, Campbell Scott and Kyra Sedgwick are going through the awkward stages of a relationship--that point when quirky little traits that may have seemed attractive initially can evolve into major annoyances. It's a funny, sweet, enjoyable picture that captures some of the flavor of the Northwest, where writer-director Cameron Crowe relocated after marrying Seattle native Nancy Wilson of Heart. (The Wilson sisters also appear on the soundtrack as members of The Lovemongers.) Ten years before the release of Singles in 1992, Crowe was the "boy wonder" reporter for Rolling Stone magazine who went back to high school in order to research and write what became Fast Times at Ridgemont High. His other work includes Jerry Maguire (1996) and Say Anything (1989). --Jim Emerson

From The New Yorker

Cameron Crowe's second film as a writer-director (the first was the lovely 1989 teen comedy "Say Anything") is a buoyant, sweet-tempered little picture about the romantic confusions of some young Seattle apartment-dwellers. It's an ensemble piece, the sort of movie that flits from character to character like a hummingbird. Crowe's touch is so light that you may, in the end, feel a bit unsatisfied-disappointed that the movie's buzzing comic vitality starts to lose its resonance the moment you leave the theatre. This is romantic comedy of the wispiest kind, but the picture is generous, graceful, and consistently funny. The director, in his airy way, has really created a world here: he turns the urban Northwest into a Forest of Arden for young professionals and hopeful grunge-rockers. Campbell Scott and Kyra Sedgwick play Steve and Linda, idealistic yuppies in love, and both prove to be wonderfully deft comedians. And Matt Dillon, as Cliff, the rather dim leader of a band called Citizen Dick, is hilarious. But the standout in Crowe's energetic cast is Bridget Fonda, who plays Janet, a bubbly underachiever inexplicably smitten with Cliff. Fonda is a true original: she brings such reckless, joyous abandon to Janet's pursuit of the unlikely object of desire that she transforms this desperate-love story line into something exuberantly optimistic. This movie shows that Cameron Crowe is a rare bird, too: a sunny realist. Also with Sheila Kelley, Jim True, and Bill Pullman. The soundtrack features new songs by Pearl Jam (whose members play Cliff's bandmates) and other luminaries of the flourishing Seattle rock scene, including Soundgarden, Mudhoney, Mother Love Bone, and Alice in Chains. (Plus a couple of ringers: ex-Replacement Paul Westerberg, who also wrote the incidental music; and the first and greatest of Seattle rockers, Jimi Hendrix.) -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ah, to be twentysomething in Seattle in the early 1990s!, December 4, 2004

By 

Nicholas Carroll (Portland OR United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Singles (DVD)

This film genuinely surprised me when I first saw it in theaters in 1992. For me, Bridget Fonda was the main draw at the time, as she received top billing and was on the movie posters with Matt Dillion. It felt like a bait and switch, because the film focuses more on Campbell Scott and Kyra Sedgwick's relationship, even though they aren't featured on the poster. That's no biggie, because I enjoyed their storyline much more than Bridget and Matt's...but I bet Campbell and Kyra weren't happy to be excluded on the poster/DVD cover.

This film has it all...great music suitable to the period (grunge/alternative), fantastic use of place (Seattle in a starring role), interesting and quirky characters, and true to life portrayal of young people in their twenties negotiating through life as they find their true passions. I especially loved Campbell Scott's performance and he is the true star of this film. His job is working on creating a "Super Train" to get Seattlites out of their cars and onboard for their commute, because he believes that "if you give them great coffee and great music, they'll ride." His girlfriend, played by Kyra Sedgwick, has her pulse on the masses, by telling him, "I still love my car, though." She's an environmentalist who drives an old gass guzzling clunker of an automobile, which Campbell pokes fun at after a lunch date. Its a joy to watch their relationship grow from initial doubts to lover games about how soon after a date one should call to other challenges that crop up. I especially love the scene when Linda (Sedgwick) peruses Steve's (Campbell Scott) record albums and gets nostalgic about her college days. That scene epitomizes the exciting "getting to know you" stage of dating and rings absolutely true. The choice of music in that scene, and throughout the entire movie really enhances the scenes overall.

Probably the only thing I didn't like about the film, which is just a tiny critique, was Janet's (Fonda) almost groupie-like infatuation with Cliff (Dillon), who didn't seem all that interested in her (until she moves on with her life). They are a mismatched pair if there ever was one...Janet with her ambitions for Grad School to pursue architecture, and Cliff the stereotypical Gen X slacker working menial jobs to support his rock band career that probably wouldn't have gone anywhere. Janet should have hooked up with the plastic surgeon who doesn't know how to have fun!

This dvd would be made even better with a director's commentary track. Cameron Crowe could divulge a lot of interesting information and insite jokes that the average filmwatcher might not catch (like when the mime says, "wooo woooo woooo" in response to a guy who says he works for Boeing, or when a reporter asks Cliff what the song "Touch Me, I'm Dick" is about--which is an inside joke on the actual song "Touch Me, I'm Sick"). This film is so ingrained into the grunge culture of Seattle of the early 1990s, that future audiences could use a lot of background info a director's commentary would provide. At any rate, this film is a joy to watch, and cheaply priced that it's worth having in one's collection. And buy the soundtrack while you're at it.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A snapshot of the early 90s with a universal theme, March 20, 2001

By 

Greg Seupaul - See all my reviews

This review is from: Singles (DVD)

I was in college in '92, when the grunge scene really took off, and this movie brings those days back perfectly. Somehow it doesn't seem dated either, like many 80s movies do. It's probably because of the engaging storyline and familar, "hey-that-could-be-me" characters that Cameron Crowe is known for. The Campbell Scott character, Steve (and by the way, where IS Campbell Scott these days?) is like so many of us - obsessed with work, trying to make sense of the whole dating and relationship scene, wishing for simplicity. Bridget Fonda's Janet is anyone who ever woke up from codependency and realized his/her own self-worth. And Kyra Sedgwick's Linda is everyone who ever got their heart broken and put up barriers to protect themselves, only to find that not all people are as bad as you think. Great cast, great setting, incredible soundtrack. The DVD adds some deleted scenes which I think are also on the VHS version, as well as cast bios. Check out cameos by Eddie Vedder, Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam (the musicians in Matt Dillon's band), Chris Cornell of Soundgarden, and a performance by Alice in Chains. And don't miss Jeremy Piven as the checkout guy, and the eldest son from "Malcolm in the Middle" as the young Steve.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the video bible on being single, April 10, 2000

By 

Hume An - See all my reviews

This review is from: Singles (DVD)

Do you ever get the feeling that you are the only person in the world who is single? When you turn on the television, walk through the mall, or simply go out with friends, do you get depressed about being the only person without a significant other? If so, this movie is for you. If not, this movie is still for you.

Singles is a movies about a handful of post-college twenty somethings mapping out and searching for romance and intimacy against the post-industrial grunge backdrop of Seattle. Don't worry, it's not a film about beautiful, angst-ridden people who complain about everything. In fact, one of the best things about this movie is that these people aren't overly cool. They aren't malice-filled, perfect-looking, spoiled, or particularly trendy. The beauty of these characters is that they are real. They are vulnerable, insecure, modest, humorous, and idiosyncratic. While watching this movie, you never get the sense of feeling threatened by these characters or feeling any hate toward them (even in spite of their faults). Instead, through their dating successes and failures, through their small triumphs and heartaches, through their good and bad behavior, you continually root for these people, you feel what they feel, and you get a sense that out there, somewhere are real people who are single, and who must deal with the pleasure and pain of being single.

I think this is Cameron Crowe's third film (1st-Fast Times at Ridgemont High 2nd-Say Anything 4th-Jerry McGuire). As are all his films, this film is very funny, very sympathetic, and very humane. What makes this film so good and so watchable is the fact that its humor and its story are derived from the way real, ordinary people conduct their day to day lives. It doesn't bring extra emotion into a situation to make it dramatic. It doesn't add extra humor to make a situation funny. It doesn't bring extra romance to a situation to make it romantic. Instead, the film focuses on presenting the quotidian in its purest form, allowing emotion, humor, and romance to come naturally out of ordinary life. This film is so good because it truthfully captures what it is like to be single.

Personal note: when I watched this film every day after classes my junior year in college, it served as a great consolation to me--That it is okay to be single! Now that I am engaged to be married, I still watch the film and remember my own singlehood with laughter and fond memories.

In short, I strongly recommend this film to anyone. It's funny, touching, and authentic.