L.A. Story (1991)

(On TV, March 2020) Sweet and occasionally absurd, Steve Martin’s L.A. Story is what happens when a comedian decides to satirize his Los Angeles experience. Martin stars and wrote the script, and his specific touch can be found in the silly scenes that depart from reality (a communicating billboard, highway shootout scenes) in order to back up the film’s romantic comedy. It’s a lot like Martin’s Roxanne in some ways. It’s romantic in a somewhat unusual register of wisecracks accompanied by magical realism and disarmingly cute sentimentalism: Martin earns the right to do one by doing the other. The cinematography is evocative of a semi-fantastic Los Angeles, and Martin gets plenty of co-stars, supporting players of cameos to strengthen the film—with a nod toward Sarah Jessica Parker and Victoria Tennant. One suspects that L.A. Story is filled with inside jokes that will only make sense to actors working in circa-1990 Los Angeles, but those feel like depth rather than whooshing references. Sure, the early-1990s fashions, jokes and visuals can be outdated—but they’re now equally apt to be charming, much like the rest of this wonderful film.