Duke of Groove

In the end of the 60's or in the beginning of the 70's, Rich Cooper (Tobey Maguire) goes with his mother Rebecka (the gorgeous and sexy Kate Capshaw) to a crazy party, where Janis Joplin and other stranger guests are present. He gets a bootleg tape of his idol Bob Dylan from the host (Kiefer Sutherland), a kiss from a beautiful girl he met in the party, Maya (Uma Thurman) and a news in the end: that night, his father had left his mother. This short story seems to be the experience of probably some important person in Hollywood when he was young. It is very personal. It is about a very special night of a teenager, an `asshole' in the eyes of the girls as mentioned by Rich to Maya, who goes to a party, makes success with a beautiful girl, gets a great gift and receives unpleasant news. My vote is six.

I believe this was loosly based on a real experience by director, Griffin Dunne, and a party he went to with his mother (as a teenager) at his aunt (writer Joan Didion) and uncle's (writer John Dunne) that was the LA launch for Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Dunne convinced his mom to not introduce him as her son, but was disappointed when she insisted on leaving before Janis came as she wouldn't show up until 1 or 2 a.m., after her gig. Read about this and more fascinating stories from Dunne's life in the autobiography, "The Friday Afternoon Club."

This film was great, and was nominated for an Academy Award as best short feature.