Have you ever seen Donnie Darko? You know that part where Drew Barrymore is reading from Graham Green’s “The Destructors”? The beginning of True Colors starts with James Spader staring down John Cusack as he’s waiting for the results of an election that he’s running in, and his voiceover has the same exact cadence and tone as that scene in Donnie Darko. I know probably no one else has ever thought this before, but who would I be if I weren’t somebody making weird intercinematic connections that nobody cares about?

True Colors is a movie about two things I do not like: politics, and John Cusack. I don’t know what it is about John, but much like Jason Bateman, I feel as though he may be harboring some dark secrets or something. He skeeves me out, and in this movie he has his hair slicked back and it looks really bad, and that annoys me.

Anyway, Peter (John) and Tim (Spader) meet as they’re both moving into the dorms at law school. I never considered that law school would have dorms. I guess that makes sense, but I am not a lawyer, and so I’ve never really had to think about law school for more than 42 seconds. Anyway, Peter hits Tim’s car, acts like it’s Tim’s fault, and then they almost have a fist fight about it. And then wouldn’t you know it? They end up being roommates! Soon they learn to put water under the bridge and become besties. Only Peter is hiding a deep and shameful secret: he is poor. Like, doesn’t even own a tux poor!!!

Tim is from a very affluent and politically connected family, but he doesn’t care about any of that. He wants to work for the DOJ! Peter, of course, has political ambitions and spends the entire movie lying and conniving and stealing Tim’s girlfriend in order to get where he wants to be. As they grow older, can their respective careers stand the test of friendship? Can their friendship stand the test of their careers? You’ll have to watch it to find out. 

I didn’t really have high hopes for this movie, but it’s actually really good. I’m not adverse to political movies at all; quite the opposite. I saw Mr. Smith Goes to Washington for the first time this year and do you know what? It was really good! I wonder if anyone else knows that.

And I will say that I should’ve moved this movie up a week and put it in with all the other movies where James Spader seems to have weird homoerotic energy with his male co-lead. The way he stares John Cusack down screams lust to me! 

Of course I am finding it hard to keep my focus on both watching and writing these things because of Beyondfest, but Spader September is almost over. I haven’t seen too many stinkers, and maybe it was my low expectations, but I did quite like this movie very much.

There are quite a few movies called True Colors on Tubi, but unfortunately, this one is not there. Maybe you could watch one of the other ones; let me know if you do and what you thought.