Description

Too funny to be drama and too dark to be comedy, Elaine May’s THE HEARTBREAK KID is instead a vehicle for comedic disgust — something all too rare in the New Hollywood era 1970s into which it was born. Charles Grodin is Lenny, running out on his somewhat annoying wife Lila (Jeanette Berlin) for the exciting unknown of Kelly (Cybill Shepherd). The premise is straightforward, but the way it plays out is anything but.

In this episode, Natalie Marlin joins to talk about the movie’s unique proto-cringe comedic language, how it leverages its actors in their time, where the third act went, and the gut-punch ending.

Find Natalie…

• On Twitter and Bluesky
• On Letterboxd at @framingthepic
• In the byline for Noise Music, a forthcoming entry in Genre: A 33 ⅓ Series book about the noise genre and its influences on and intersections with culture
• On Trylove episodes about THE THIRD MAN (1949), CHESS OF THE WIND (1979), RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (1985), MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (2015), MILLENNIUM MAMBO (2001), THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999), LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT (2018), ZARDOZ (1974), NOSTALGHIA (1987), SECONDS (1966), THERE WILL BE BLOOD (2007)

References:

• “Finding The Heartbreak Kid” with historian, programmer, and filmmaker Elizabeth Purchell
• “4 Local Movie Theaters Bucking the Trend to Go All-Digital” at Racket
• “Still Heartbroken After All These Years: The Heartbreak Kid as Elaine May’s Master Class” by Ethan Warren for Bright Wall/Dark Room
• “They Don’t Even Have Romance in Movies Anymore!” by Caitlyn Speier for Perisphere, the Trylon blog
• “This Woman’s Work: A New Leaf, Elaine May, and Editing Versus Meddling” Courtney Kowalke for Perisphere, the Trylon blog
• Give to the Trylon’s Film Forever Fund so they never have to increase ticket prices!
• Check the calendar, preview upcoming series, and buy tickets
• Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog

#LaughUntilYouCryTwoComediesbyElaineMay #Digital

Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast, Bluesky at @trylovepodca.st, and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch!

Show art by Emily Csuy. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: “Close To You” by Burt Bacharach with lyrics by Hal David from the THE HEARTBREAK KID soundtrack.

Timestamps

0:00 - Episode 330: THE HEARTBREAK KID (1972)

2:29 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary (under exclusive license from AG Enterprises, Ltd.)

5:05 - An indelible, essential “bitterness” to THE HEARTBREAK KID

22:04 - Is this the first cringe comedy?

33:19 - New Hollywood and comic disillusionment with the 1970s

36:32 - Charles Grodin as Lenny

49:46 - Editing, framing, and the ending

1:00:32 - The Junk Drawer

1:12:04 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 1972

1:14:29 - Cody’s Noteys: Am I KID-ding? (Trivia about movies with kid-related titles)