When filmmaker Kevin Reynolds was attending USC film school, he made a short student film called Proof which caught the eye of Steven Spielberg. The renowned director liked it so much that he helped fund a feature-length mixture of drama and comedy. Reynolds’ feature film debut, Fandango is a captivating story of a group of college friends who, faced with the terrifying uncertainty of their near future, decide to go on one last road trip together. Even though Kevin Costner played the lead role in an older film, The Gunrunner, that movie was released in 1989, which makes Fandango Costner’s first starring role. Aided by the talents of Judd Nelson, Sam Robards, Chuck Bush, Suzy Amis and Brian Cesak, Reynolds’ film got a plethora of positive reviews, as the critics found it fresh, humorous and surprisingly confident considering its director’s lack of experience.
Written by Reynolds himself, Fandango succeeded in capturing that somewhat petrifying transitional state from youth to adulthood, as a bunch of college graduates are plunged into “real life”, as the protective cushions of their youth have been suddenly stripped away. The film was made with passion and a certain kind of sincerity, as funny as it might sound, and since its themes are pretty much universal, it’s easy to fall for its charm.
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