Every Movie Should Have Two Trisha Yearwood Montages

My Year of Phoenixes continues with The Thing Called Love

This week’s newsletter is so long that it might be clipped by Gmail. You can read it in full here.

Since Just Another Love Song comes out next week, I was in the mood to watch a country music movie. To be honest with you, JALS isn’t really about country music, and it’s certainly not about having a career in country music—Hank’s career is something he’s not actively working at when he’s in town reconnecting with Sandy, and Sandy’s the main character so we mostly see her life. Also, full disclosure, I do not enjoy writing about work so I was never going to write a book about the ins and outs of the music industry. JALS, then, is more country music inspired—imagine 90s country constantly playing in the background as you read it, or a country song playing out on the page. The book version of Neon Moon. You get the picture.

The Thing Called Love was the perfect movie to watch in the lead up to JALS’s release because it’s the film embodiment of 90s country music. I mean, Trisha Yearwood herself makes a cameo! There’s a montage set to She’s in Love With the Boy! And then, later, another montage set to Walkaway Joe! It couldn’t be more 90s.

It’s amazing I hadn’t watched this movie yet because it felt very made for me. Yes, it was full of 90s country, but also it was just weird. River Phoenix’s character is unlike any character I’ve seen (more on that later). Now I see why so many people recommended this film to me, although I mostly have to thank Alicia Thompson for her tireless advocacy on behalf of convincing me to watch it. You were all right. This movie rules.

When the movie starts, we meet Samantha Mathis, riding the bus away from the city as she wears a Yankees cap. She gazes at the statue of liberty, in case you forgot for one second that she’s a New Yorker. Her accent will never let you forget, though. She’s making her way to Nashville to go after a country music songwriting career, and I appreciated that this film just threw us into the action without much in the way of explanation. A lesser film probably would’ve given us some backstory (which we do get a little bit of later), but honestly, who cares? Let’s get to Nashville, get the action started, and give the people what they want: River Phoenix!

He’s another aspiring country singer-songwriter, he and Samantha Mathis share a haircut, and he’s a magnetic performer. I spent a lot of time thinking about how if this was a current movie, they’d probably cast some generically handsome/buff dude who sang smoothly. Like, I’m imagining Scott Eastwood in a cowboy hat.

This trailer makes it look like a basic 90s romcom (no offense to basic 90s romcoms), but with this casting and this director, it really, really isn’t. River Phoenix is distinctive, and so is everyone else in this film. Dermot Mulroney plays a country songwriter from Connecticut, which made me think about how everyone gives Taylor Swift so much shit about being from Pennsylvania. This movie posits that perhaps many country singers are, in fact, using a persona, which is something I think about whenever I hear a rich artist sing about still living in their hometown/driving on a dirt road/drinking cheap beer.

Sandra Bullock (SANDY!) is also there, playing a delightful bad singer named Linda Lou Linden (A+ name, A+ casting). She immediately befriends Samantha Mathis and comes off as endearingly, but perhaps annoyingly, dorky. She wears pajamas with feet, for starters. But as is the case in any Sandy performance, she has hidden depths. I love Linda Lou Linden.

I didn’t realize that this was a Peter Bogdanovich film until I started watching it, but you can tell immediately that it’s made with a level of care that the trailer does not imply. The sound is crackling—there are gentle nighttime crickets and the pitter-patter of rain drops. There’s atmosphere. There’s a train motif (the train rushing by in the window as River and Samantha Mathis kiss! That’s romance!). There are recurring images (so many mirrors!). There are some really out-there shots—at one point, the camera switches to River Phoenix’s POV as Samantha Mathis leans in to kiss him. It’s all a lot of fun to watch.

Earlier I noted that Trisha Yearwood makes a cameo, which is more than welcome. In my opinion, all movies should feature Trisha Yearwood cameos, and I’m weirdly invested in her and Garth Brooks’s relationship. She seems like a lot of fun on her cooking show, and also did you know Garth wrote the intro for at least one of her cookbooks and signed it “Mr. Yearwood”? That’s the energy I think all husbands should have.

As previously mentioned, we get not one but two montages set to Trisha songs, including one to She’s in Love With the Boy, which is a perfect song.

But most importantly, The Thing Called Love features one of the most drawn out, back and forth, never really resolved love triangles I’ve ever seen. There’s nothing I love in a film more than a love triangle. As a kid, I really thought love triangles would feature more prominently in my adult life. I just assumed that eventually I’d have to choose between an outwardly edgy but inwardly vulnerable bad boy or an endearingly earnest clean cut boy, and then that choice would symbolize my character growth and the path I would follow in life.

And that’s what I love about love triangles, and what I think a lot of love triangle haters get wrong about them. You know how when you’re trying to decide which of Rory’s boyfriends is the best and someone’s like, “Well, I’M Team Rory.” Maybe that’s a bad example because all of Rory’s boyfriends had serious issues. But, like, the whole “she shouldn’t choose a boy, she should choose herself” argument…you know it, right? That argument in my opinion, fundamentally misses the point! Because the love triangle isn’t ever about the boy! It’s about what the boy represents. It’s about how what that boy represents fits into the main character’s arc. And the character’s arc is almost always going to bend toward growth, change, and taking chances. It’s rarely going to bend toward safety, stagnancy, or settling.

Which is all to say…sorry to Dermot Mulroney, the nice, steady guy from Connecticut who’s forced to compete with the raw charisma of River Phoenix. River Phoenix is honestly pretty mean to Samantha Mathis for most of this film. He ignores her (because he’s SECRETLY VULNERABLE) and makes decisions without thinking of her.

But still, as a viewer you watch and think, “You know what? Maybe they should get married after he proposes in a gas station!” Because he’s River Phoenix.

And listen…I was going to include a whole thing here about how happy and shocked I was when Anthony Clark popped up because I was extremely into the sitcom Boston Common as a child, but this newsletter is already too dang long so I’ll just say: please do message me if you were also a child entirely too invested in Boyd and Joy’s relationship.

This man’s face is imprinted on my soul.

I started out thinking I wouldn’t have much to say about The Thing Called Love, but ultimately I had “Gmail might truncate this email” number of words to say about it. Life is surprising sometimes! Let me know if you love this movie too, and thank you to all of you who recommended it! You were right, I loved it.

It’s also very sad to watch, though, knowing that River Phoenix died shortly after it was made. I was going to quote Roger Ebert’s review, but you should just read the whole thing. This is a fun movie, but knowing what would soon happen did lend a darkness to it. As Peter Bogdanovich put it, “"It was a totally different movie before. It had a hopeful quality and now it doesn't. The ending is ambiguous, but because River died, it becomes very sad. The last thing you're left with is that he is dead, even though the character is alive ... (The movie) was supposed to be bittersweet, but it turned out being more bitter than sweet."

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My book, Just Another Love Song, comes out…oh, is it August 2nd? Have I mentioned that yet? Well, it does. If you’d like a signed copy, you can order one from Gramercy (just be sure to note in the comment section that you want it signed and/or personalized!). And don’t forget, I’ll be at Gramercy on August 9th at 7 pm with Jen Devon to talk about our books. Registration is required. I hope to see you there!

Next week, Just Another Love Song is coming out, so the newsletter will be dedicated to sharing a few facts about it/the process behind writing it. Not to spoil anything, but an O’Charley’s is involved. See you next week.