Diner (Special edition)

Levinson’s autobiographical first feature is a rites-of-passage ensemble piece about a college student returning home to Baltimore for the Christmas holidays in 1959. He and his old group of male school buddies attempt to fend off the pending responsibilities of adulthood by hanging out at the local diner and talking about football, women, cars and music. A sharply scripted and detailed observation of teenage male bonding rituals in small town USA, “Diner” is imbued with an acute sense of longing for an innocent, carefree, pre-adult life. Starring: Kevin Bacon, Steve Guttenberg, Mickey Rourke, Ellen Barkin and Daniel Stern. “Diner” was the first part of Levinson’s Baltimore trilogy, followed by “Tin men” (1987) and “Avalon” (1990).