Five Easy Pieces
This was a superb movie from 1970 in which Jack Nicholson plays Bobby, a piano prodigy who's left his supremely intellectual and gifted, yet dysfunctional, family to be a drifter; at the start of the movie he's working on an oil field. He's called back to the homestead because his father has had two strokes, bringing his pregnant waitress girlfriend (Karen Black in fine form) but then dumping her at a nearby motel because he's embarassed by her.
Bobby is basically a selfish cock, dodging responsibility and running away from any problems or commitments that come his way. I think it's the best acting I've ever seen from Nicholson. Carole Eastman's excellent script is character rather than plot driven, and contains many choice dialogue scenes (everyone talks about the chicken sandwich, but my favourite was the Filth Lady). My favourite scene overall is Bobby alone with his paralyzed father; the actor who plays the old man gives an extraordinary performance without moving or speaking. If you've seen it, you know what I mean.
Probably the best movie about personal responsibility I've ever seen.
Them
Sold as a lean & mean nerve-jangling thriller with a wicked twist in its tail, I found this French/Romanian movie to be a mechanical & by-the-numbers stalk & slash movie with a lot of stalking and not much slashing. I guessed the (rather ordinary) twist early on, which drained the suspense that hadn't already been sapped by the protagonists acting like typical horror-movie morons.
Oh well, you can't win 'em all.
And that's it! Festival over.
Posted by pearce at August 6, 2007 4:33 PM