Early on, Coleman (Jason Robards), Gena (Piper Laurie), and Ike (Harry Dean Stanton) have some pleasant small talk on the character establishment train with a full stop at this balcony table.

When I watched this film, I almost thought I saw it before because there was another movie which used that same exact balcony table at the same restaurant, and most likely was also a crane shot. I just can’t figure out what film it was, I thought maybe with Richard Dreyfuss, but that isn’t matching with anything he was in.

Later in the movie, Bobby/Coleman (Corey Feldman) and Lainie (Meredith Salenger) revisit this location during a montage.

This location itself has been many different restaurants over the years. A past bandmate used to work in the kitchen there when it was Roy’s Riverboat Landing.

Just a quick scene in which Coleman (Jason Robards) and Ike (Harry Dean Stanton) park the car and get out. It’s directly across from the First Baptist Church used in Blue Velvet, and kitty-corner to the Carolina Apartments building, where Dorothy (Isabella Rossellini) lived in Blue Velvet. This is a very busy intersection for both traffic and productions, FOX’s Sleepy Hollow and We’re the Millers filmed at this corner as well. There is also a fountain in the center of this intersection which is hard to miss (if you are drunk) which is called Kenan Plaza.

This montage was one of many in this movie. It made me wonder if any literary works contain montages.
Coleman and Gena ride on a carriage. They playfully drink wine illegally in public. They walk arm in arm just a few feet away and get blinded by the sun.

I guess that could work.

Mind you, the balcony that they eat at in the beginning is literally just at the corner, half a block away. They sure maximized their locations on this production. This area is along the Wilmington Downtown Riverwalk, which extends down to the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge.

The other shots are visible in the same map, just spin to the left and you’ll see Battleship North Carolina, and the building they are riding past is the Alton Lennon Federal Building, which is used in many other productions. I remember watching Shirley MacLaine directing the movie Bruno (2000), and there was a guy in a suit as background walking from his start over and over again with each take. I hadn’t experience being an extra yet, but was mesmerized with how it all worked, and thought that guy was funny for walking back and forth forever. I’d learn eventually the mastery of the cross, being sent on a path by an assistant director to add movement in the background.

Later in the movie, Coleman/Bobby (Corey Feldman) and his stolen date Lainie (Meredith Salenger) recreate these same moments.

Lastly, this is also the same exact location of the morning Tai Chi, with the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge in the background.