Diner

R

Released Apr 2, 1982

1 hr. 50 min.

Comedy

Drama

List

92%

49 Reviews

Tomatometer

77%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Billy (Timothy Daly) returns home to Baltimore to serve as the best man at his upcoming wedding of his childhood buddy Eddie (Steve Guttenberg). In the meantime, he and Eddie get together with their friends at the local diner, where they trade stories about their lives. All they really want to do is go back to being the carefree boys they once were, but they know it cannot be. Their funny and at times revealing exchanges help each other face the mounting responsibility of adulthood.

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Critics Consensus

Diner transports audiences back to the 1950s with a refreshing lack of sentimentality, evoking the thrill of everyday life with its ensemble's potent chemistry and an authentic sense of spontaneity.

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chal b

Definitely a guys movie. This movie is a guilty pleasure! Will always recommend as a great movie!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

04/13/24

Full Review

Tic Toc M

I remember when this came out and having high hopes for it but was totally disappointed. Just tried watching it again and it's just as tedious as I remember it. "American Graffiti" it most definitely is not. Good cast but the writing is annoying and so are the characters. I'd say it hasn't aged well at all, but it was never that great in the first place. By 1982 the whole 50's nostalgia thing was beaten to death, there had been a whole slew of movies in the wake of American Graffiti and this was just another. Levinson did a better movie a few years later called "The Tin Men" that was basically like the older guys at the diner, with Richard Dreyfus and Danny Devito, two of their best performances.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

11/07/23

Full Review

Dennis S

This film is boring, long winded and pretentious. It tries to be an art house American Graffiti, and fails at every level.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/12/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Probably the best thing about this movie is that it depicts the 50s away from the common romanticization of the era, despite the nostalgia involved. Romanticizing an era is not wrong, but is prone to leave small details behind, like the ones a group of friends would have usually lived through, and render them unmentioned and forgotten. Diner is like one of those 90s comedies involving a group of friends, except it's set in older days, making it enjoyable but also unique. However, as with those aforementioned comedies, the plot generally hasn't much to offer, which is something expected from a movie trying to maintain a specific sub-genre.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/29/23

Full Review

Shioka O

A coming of age tale set in good time late 1950s. Every time I watch this kind films I wonder how it's gonna conclude its story. Nothing really happen but watchable because this has comfortable dialogs.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

12/15/22

Full Review

dave s

Set in 1959 Baltimore, Barry Levinson's Diner is, simply put, a film about friendship. Six childhood buddies, now in their early twenties, reunite over the Christmas holidays, reminiscing about the past while coming to terms with the burden of adult responsibility. With no central plot to speak of, Levinson's script focuses on a series of sub-plots – an upcoming wedding, a failing marriage, a gambling debt, among other things. The film works on the strength of the dialogue, which always feels natural and spontaneous, sharply defined characters, and some great performances from its young cast, which includes early performances from the likes of Kevin Bacon, Mickey Rourke, Ellen Barkin and Paul Reiser. Diner is a touching and relatable slice-of-life experience where the drama never becomes melodramatic and the humor never gets in the way of the stories, a winner from start to finish.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

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Barry Levinson

Director

Steve Guttenberg

Edward "Eddie" Simmons

Mickey Rourke

Robert "Boogie" Sheftell

Kevin Bacon

Timothy Fenwick Jr.

Tim Daly

William "Billy" Howard

Ellen Barkin

Beth Schreiber

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Max Weiss

Baltimore Magazine

I think it’s time to forgive Diner for being a product of its time and embrace it as the coming-of-age masterpiece it truly is.

Dec 8, 2023

Full Review

Pauline Kael

New Yorker

Levinson never allows us to think that we know everything there is to know about these characters... Levinson doesn’t violate his characters by summing them up -- he understands that we never fully understand anybody.

Sep 18, 2023

Full Review

Robert Osborne

Hollywood Reporter

All in all, Diner is a worthwhile dish, certainly the best thing Leo the Lion has had to roar about in some time.

Apr 4, 2022

Full Review

David Nusair

Reel Film Reviews

...an easygoing, persistently episodic drama that benefits from the captivating work of its various performers...

Rated: 3.5/4

Aug 16, 2023

Full Review

Kyndall Cunningham

The Daily Beast

The little movie that paved the way for Seinfeld (and presumably a bunch of other shows and movies about men talking about nothing) is a hilarious, sharply written romp about a group of male friends approaching different crossroads in their adulthoods.

Dec 5, 2022

Full Review

Mike Massie

Gone With The Twins

The humor (some of it steeped in nostalgia and sentimentality), even during the more notorious sequences, is never strong enough to transcend the limitations of its minimal scope and setting and lack of a traditional narrative.

Rated: 5/10

Sep 22, 2022

Full Review

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Synopsis

Billy (Timothy Daly) returns home to Baltimore to serve as the best man at his upcoming wedding of his childhood buddy Eddie (Steve Guttenberg). In the meantime, he and Eddie get together with their friends at the local diner, where they trade stories about their lives. All they really want to do is go back to being the carefree boys they once were, but they know it cannot be. Their funny and at times revealing exchanges help each other face the mounting responsibility of adulthood.

Director: Barry Levinson
Executive Producer: Mark Johnson
Screenwriter: Barry Levinson
Production Co: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, SLM Production Group
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 2, 1982, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 1, 2008

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