AustLit

'As a teenager, one of my favourite movie scenes featured a baby-faced John Cusack standing in his tweed coat and Clash T-shirt, boombox held aloft in the air, blasting Peter Gabriel in a last-ditch attempt to woo back his girl, who is sleeping in the bedroom above. These days, I’ve no desire to revisit the film—I worry that what charmed me in a mainstream eighties rom-com may easily come across as borderline stalker-ish now—but something about the overly earnest scene keeps popping back into my brain. This is important, Cusack’s character says; even if all this is inevitably doomed, I must at least TRY.' (Annabel Bardy-Brown, Editorial introduction)