Jim Abrahams

Jim Abrahams passed away at the age of 80 on Tuesday. Best known for directing absurdist comedies like Airplane! and The Naked Gun, Abrahams made a lot of movies I haven't seen since I was a kid but I still remember a whole lot of dialogue from. Watching a bunch of '70s panic movies recently, I was compelled to remember the running gag in Airplane! of Lloyd Bridges ruefully observing it was a bad time to stop smoking/drinking/doing cocaine.

I have a very clear memory of the kids on my street being really pumped to see Hot Shots: Part Deux. I'm not sure if I ever even saw the first one but I was excited to go along with everyone for the second.

Periodically, I have to watch clips from Police Squad, which Abrahams co-created, to maintain my sanity.

Not all of Abrahams' films were absurdist comedies. Last night I watched his 1990 film Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael. It stars Winona Ryder as a misfit teen named Dinkie who lives in a small, gaudy town obsessed with a legendary former resident, the Roxy Carmichael of the title. Ryder's performance is great and I found it to be an insightful film about a teenage girl desperate for a role model. It's not Abrahams' typical absurdist comedy and yet there's definitely a surreal element at play. No-one's quite sure why Roxy is so famous, she's like a tall tale that would've been more at home in another era, like Paul Bunyan or Hercules.

Abrahams directs from a screenplay by Karen Leigh Hopkins to make a film that connects a slightly dreamlike reality with a girl's struggle against normalcy and with a simultaneous need for validation. It's nothing I'd have expected from Abrahams. It's available on The Criterion Channel now as a part of a Winona Ryder playlist.