The world lost Rob Reiner on Sunday, along with his wife, Michele. An actor, writer, producer and director, Reiner leaves behind an incredible body of work. Consider Reiner’s run as a director from the mid-1980s through the early 1990s: During that span, Reiner made an extraordinary mockumentary, an iconic coming of age movie, an Oscar-winning Stephen King adaptation, a pitch-perfect legal drama, and, for good measure, the single greatest romantic comedy of all time.
What makes this run even more remarkable is that he was not, on the surface, an obvious pick to go on such a tear. Before he started making movies, Reiner was already an established figure, the son of a famous comedy icon and a television star with some Emmys. If he had made a couple of decent comedies, that would have counted as a success. Instead, Reiner arrived at directing with a magic touch for making highly successful, mass-appeal movies. His work during this period hopscotched easily between genres, earned a string of Oscar nominations, made a bunch of money and wound up on a lot of people’s lists of their favorite movies. Here, Washington Post staffers list our own favorite Reiner projects. -Mark Berman
‘This Is Spinal Tap’
It’s pretty funny that in his filmmaking debut, Reiner plays a gasbag director — in this case, a riff on Martin Scorsese’s self-insertions into his own rockumentary work. The deliciousness goes to 11. So does the influence of this faux documentary of an ambitious/pretentious rock band, which is quotable to this day (“You can’t really dust for vomit”), poignant in its bottling of desperation and delusion, and as monumentally hilarious as a Stonehenge stage prop. — Jonathan Fischer
‘The Princess Bride’
When my brothers and I first experienced video on a computer, our most-played clip was Vizzini (Wallace Shawn): “No more rhymes now, I mean it.” Fezzik (Andre the Giant): “Anybody want a peanut?” While the book and script came from legendary writer William Goldman, Reiner perfectly balanced the comedy and the stakes, while assembling an anomalous collection of watchable actors and disparate elements — “fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles,” as the grandfather reading the story explains, plus, of course “marriage,” a word that we will never hear the same way again. — Zachary Pincus-Roth
‘The American President’
Should a lobbyist really be dating the president while also soliciting votes for a piece of legislation? “The American President” doesn’t concern itself too much with this dull ethical question, and thank goodness, because then there would be less room for the wondrously snappy dialogue that fills the Oval Office in this liberal fantasy of a romcom. The film launched both “The West Wing” and “Spin City”; it’s also a lasting, superb depiction of two intelligent middle-aged adults falling in love through words. — Jenny Rogers
‘Sleepless in Seattle’
Reiner has two short scenes in “Sleepless in Seattle,” but still managed to deliver the film’s most memorable line, and with only one word: “Tiramisu.” Sitting at a bar over lunch, Reiner’s job is to matter-of-factly coach a mystified widow (Tom Hanks) on reentering a much-changed dating world. And who better? We need no backstory to trust Reiner as the best friend who will always give it to you straight. “First you have to be friends,” he says. “You have to like each other. Then you neck. This could go on for years. Then you have tests and then you get to do it with a condom.” Reiner stops, beer in hand, and introduces the concept of tiramisu with a sidelong glance, as if it were a secret code. “What is it?” Hank asks. “You’ll see,” Reiner responds. “Some woman is going to want me to do it to her and I’m not going to know what it is,” Hank protests. “You’ll love it,” Reiner insists. And we did, of course. But mostly we just loved him. — Ellen McCarthy
‘A Few Good Men’
Has anyone ever come upon “A Few Good Men” while perusing cable and not stopped to watch? The stacked cast, taut storytelling and spellbinding climactic court scene (which permanently entered Jack Nicholson’s “you can’t handle the truth” line into common parlance) made for a perfect piece of entertainment. One amazing piece of trivia that attests to Reiner’s inventiveness as a director: Unable to satisfactorily cast the part of Lance Corporal Dawson, Reiner plucked the right man directly from the set: Wolfgang Bodison, a non-actor who was working as the film’s location scout and went on to turn in a memorable performance. — Jenny Rogers
‘The Sure Thing’
Scruffily charming, “The Sure Thing” is underrated Reiner: a road trip rom com, riffing on Frank Capra’s “It Happened One Night.” It was the screenwriters’ debut, and only Reiner’s second feature. (John Cusack was so young he had to be legally emancipated to work on it!) It’s a movie about, for and by young people; maybe that’s why it still feels so fresh. As of this writing, it’s unavailable to stream, but physical discs are on sale — and worth it. — Sophia Nguyen
‘New Girl’
Reiner was a savvy choice to play the father of Zooey Deschanel’s oddball protagonist Jess Day in “New Girl.” His zany sense of humor fit seamlessly into this carefully constructed world — and helped explain how a wackadoodle like Jess could come to be. May every sandwich consist of “lettuce, tomato, lettuce, meat-meat-meat-meat-meat-meat-meat-meat-meat, cheese, lettuce,” as his character memorably instructs Jess’ future husband. — Sonia Rao
‘When Harry Met Sally’
In lesser hands, the Katz Deli scene would have been a disaster. Would any woman really fake an orgasm in a bustling restaurant just to prove to her male companion that she could? Probably not. But Reiner knew subtle direction would make Nora Ephron’s wacky screenplay sing. He films Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal’s neurotic New Yorkers in a warm, nostalgic light that makes you want to hop in a time machine to this cozier era. I’ll have what they’re having. — Sonia Rao
‘The Wolf of Wall Street’
Reiner’s small but unforgettable role as “Mad Max” Belfort, father of Leo DiCaprio’s titular Jordan Belfort, is a testament to the warmth Reiner could bring to a screen. In a film densely populated by coarse, crass characters out for all they can steal, Reiner and DiCaprio created a surprising note of tenderness as a coarse, crass father and son who actually look out for each other. — Ashley Fetters Maloy
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