I first saw this movie as like an eleven year-old. My parents had me kind of later in life and I have this theory that they forgot the content of certain movies they showed me (see also Jumpin’ Jack Flash where my mom scrambled for the remote and hit mute every third word so that a seven year-old me wouldn’t learn the f-word from Whoopi Goldberg). Anyway, In the Spirit is rated R so don’t show it to your 11 year-old though to the best of my memory it’s probably more along the lines of a PG-13. It’s fully possible that I have the same memory issues as my parents because I haven’t seen this in years. Maybe it’s a hereditary thing. (Oh yes, I’m revisiting this paragraph from twelve and a half minutes into the movie and, yes, it is definitely rated R.)

Anyway, eleven year-old me did find this movie HILARIOUS and I was already a big Marlo Thomas fan from watching reruns of That Girl. (Seriously, everything about Marlo Thomas is just wonderful.) The movie also stars Elaine May and Peter Falk and features Olympia Dukakis and Melanie Griffith in supporting roles. So there you go, if this movie sucks or you find it offensive (fair warning that this movie is from 1990 so there’s a lot of derogatory words thrown around for sex worker) or just think the writing is crap, it has a good cast and you can’t argue with me on that.

There’s even a cute little fake-interview promo that the cast filmed because this production is nothing if not zany:

So as it turns out, I actually do not feel like reviewing this movie. I mostly just want to remind the world that it exists. It’s a new age-suspense, buddy-comedy, amateur-sleuth kind of thing with a weird voice over narrator! Who wouldn’t love that? (Critics, evidently.) Anyway, the last time I saw this movie anywhere in the digital age was YouTube five years ago and I fear that it could disappear again. So I’m going to drop the link below. Get it while it’s hot: