The one truly awful thing about every Cameron Crowe movie, like 1989's Say Anything featuring everybody's favorite broken heart - John Cusack as "Lloyd Dobler," is that behind the laughs, behind the tears, one thing remains constant:

This could happen to you.

Try watching his 2005 flick Elizabethtown when you know your own father has less than a year to live, like I did a while back, and try not to cry. Turn on 1992's Singles as a young person still trying to find how to suddenly balance your career and your heart, and say it's just comedy. Flip on Vanilla Sky if ... well, if you've been hopelessly disfigured in a car crash instigated by some stalking ex-lover, I guess. (Sorry, I never could relate to that one. But knock on wood, I hope that's not a bad omen.)

But look again at Lloyd Dobler's face as he confesses total and absolute love for Diane Court (Ione Skye) only to see her break up with him and hand him a pen, and you always say to yourself: "Man, I hope that never happens to me."

And then watch it happen to you.

So life isn't like the movies? The hell it isn't. 

[This week's podcast is about Breaking Up in the '80s and Beyond. It does feature a very special celebrity guest, so stick with it through the pain. Click here to listen. Or click here to hear all our shows for free on iTunes.]