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Diner IQ Score 160/200

Diner has an IQ Score of 160/200 on TV Intelligentsia's Intelligence Quotient rubric, placing it in the Masterclass tier.

comedydramacoming-of-age
160/ 200
Masterclass

Exceptional cognitive and educational substance, delivered with craft that sustains close attention

Diner poster, IQ Score 160/200, Masterclass tier on TV Intelligentsia

Score Breakdown

Cognitive Stimulation/50
41
Educational Value/50
38
Craft & Quality/50
41
IQ = round((Cognitive × 0.4 + Educational × 0.35 + Craft × 0.25) × 4)  · How we score →
What these dimensions mean
  • Cognitive Stimulation: how much the title demands of your mind, its structural complexity, ideas, and sustained intellectual engagement.
  • Educational Value: what you take away, across academic content, emotional intelligence, critical thinking, life skills, and knowledge transfer.
  • Craft & Quality: production excellence in service of the work, its direction, writing, performance, and aesthetic intent.

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Why you should trust this score

Scored under Jordan Robinson, MD, MPH
Physician and founding editor. Maintains the adult catalog against the published rubric and reviews the rubric application.
Formula
round((C × 0.40 + E × 0.35 + Q × 0.25) × 4)
Database scale
2,597 titles, version-controlled

How we stay independent. Editorial scores are not for sale. TVI may take on paid advisory or research work, but no commercial relationship buys coverage, advance access to scores, favorable treatment, or a change to a published finding. We pay for our own streaming subscriptions, and no reviewer sees sponsor data or affiliate revenue tied to a score. More about how we work →

The TVI Take

Barry Levinson's 1982 directorial debut about a group of young men in 1959 Baltimore who reunite for a friend's wedding. The structural commitment to letting late-adolescent male-friendship cognitive material, the canonical 'diner-as-clubhouse' set-piece, the football-trivia-as-relationship-test premise, be the actual subject is the canonical pre-Stand-by-Me male-friendship film.

Mickey Rourke, Steve Guttenberg, Daniel Stern, Kevin Bacon, Tim Daly, Ellen Barkin, Paul Reiser all early-career roles.

People & Production Barry Levinson · Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer · United States 17 connections

Direction & creation

On screen & sound

Selected cast
Steve Guttenberg Daniel Stern Mickey Rourke Kevin Bacon Tim Daly Ellen BarkinSelected in source order; not represented as billing order.
Composer

Production & release

Production company
Country of origin
Original language

Credits and relationships: Wikidata, CC0. TVI preserves production, broadcasting, and distribution as separate roles.

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Where to go next

Cite this score

Diner scored 160/200 (Masterclass tier) on TV Intelligentsia's published methodology. Source: tvintelligentsia.com/titles/diner/

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