Editing Say Anything... (section)

==Critical reception==
''Say Anything...'' was well reviewed. On [[Rotten Tomatoes]], the film has an approval rating of 98% based on 49 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's consensus reads, "One of the definitive Generation X movies, ''Say Anything'' is equally funny and heartfelt—and it established John Cusack as an icon for left-of-center types everywhere."<ref>{{cite web |title=Say Anything... (1989) |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/say_anything/ |access-date=October 16, 2023 |work=Rotten Tomatoes |publisher=[[Fandango Media|Fandango]]}}</ref> On [[Metacritic]] the film has a score of 86 based on reviews from 19 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".<ref>{{cite web |title=Say Anything... |url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/say-anything |access-date=October 16, 2023 |website=[[Metacritic]]}}</ref> Audiences surveyed by [[CinemaScore]] gave the film a grade B+ on scale of A to F.<ref>{{cite web |title=Say Anything (1989) B+ |url=https://www.cinemascore.com/publicsearch/index/title/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181220122629/https://www.cinemascore.com/publicsearch/index/title/ |archive-date=20 December 2018 |work=CinemaScore}}</ref>

Giving the film four stars out of four, ''[[Chicago Sun-Times]]'' film critic [[Roger Ebert]] called ''Say Anything...'' "one of the best films of the year—a film that is really about something, that cares deeply about the issues it contains—and yet it also works wonderfully as a funny, warmhearted romantic comedy."<ref>{{cite web|last=Ebert|first=Roger|author-link=Roger Ebert|title=Say Anything|url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/say-anything-1989|work=[[Chicago Sun-Times]]|publisher=Ebert Digital LLC|date=April 14, 1989|access-date=January 13, 2017}}</ref> He later included it in his 2002 Great Movie list, writing, "''Say Anything'' exists entirely in a real world, is not a fantasy or a pious parable, has characters who we sort of recognize, and is directed with care for the human feelings involved."<ref>{{cite web|last=Ebert|first=Roger|author-link=Roger Ebert|title=Great Movie: Say Anything|url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-say-anything-1989|work=[[Chicago Sun-Times]]|publisher=Ebert Digital LLC|date=February 17, 2002|access-date=January 13, 2017}}</ref>

[[Pauline Kael]] in ''[[The New Yorker]]'' was similarly enthusiastic, writing, "It's a slight movie, but that's not a put-down. Its slightness has to do with the writer-director Cameron Crowe's specialty: he's wired into teen-age flakes and the sloppy, exuberant confusion of high-school dating. Crowe is great here on oddity and fringe moments; the comedy helps to dry out the romanticism -- to give it lightness and a trace of enchantment."<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Kael |first= Pauline|date= May 15, 1989|title=The Current Cinema: Young Stuff |url=https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1989-05-15/flipbook/120/ |magazine= The New Yorker|access-date=August 21, 2024}}</ref>

In a less positive review, ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' called it a "half-baked love story, full of good intentions but uneven in the telling." But, the review also said the film's "[a]ppealing tale of an undirected army brat proving himself worthy of the most exceptional girl in high school elicits a few laughs, plenty of smiles and some genuine feeling."<ref>{{cite web|title=Say Anything...|url=https://www.variety.com/review/VE1117794651|work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=December 31, 1988|access-date=January 13, 2021}}</ref> In a mixed review, Caryn James of ''[[The New York Times]]'' wrote:
<blockquote>[The film] resembles a first-rate production of a children's story. Its sense of parents and the summer after high school is myopic, presented totally from the teenagers' point of view. Yet its melodrama—Will Dad go to prison? Will Diane go to England?—distorts that perspective, so the film doesn't have much to offer an actual adult, not even a sense of what it's truly like to be just out of high school these days. The film is all charming performances and grace notes, but there are plenty of worse things to be.<ref>{{cite web|first=Caryn|last=James|title=Mismatched Teen-Agers Fall in Love, Of Course|url= https://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/14/movies/review-film-mismatched-teen-agers-fall-in-love-of-course.html |work=[[The New York Times]]|date=April 14, 1989|access-date=January 13, 2017|archive-date=January 16, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170116182132/http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=950DE0DB1231F937A25757C0A96F948260|url-status=live}}</ref></blockquote>