Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

writers_reign It's clear that virtually everyone involved with this film both behind and in front of the camera was aspiring to a definite Chekhovian feel but Russian melancholy is the wrong colour for Texas so the best you can give it is 'E' for Effort. It's steeped in melancholy and there's not too much wrong with that but what over-eggs the pudding is the unrelenting bleakness of thr small,, decrepit town, dying before our eyes; Chekhov's Russia was far from opulent but affluence was certainly hinted at and in several cases it featured aristocrats who had fallen on hard times whilst in TLPS only one family is seen as anything like prosperous (Cybille Shepherds') and even Sam The Lion, who owns more or less half the town is seen as more like a vagrant than an entrepreneur. What the movie has in spades is brilliant acting starting with Cloris Leachman and Ben Johnson down to Randy Quaid and Sam Bottoms.

nilesswenson-12076 Amferene, TX is a dull town in 1950. The houses are spread out you may never see your neighbors at home. The main drag makes it look like the town is dying. Not much goes on there so the young and young at heart are obsessed with sex.Cybill Shepherd is the prettiest girl in town, manipulative and an opportunist, but she desires more despite being limited by her lack of passion. She finally gets deflowered by the town stud and who is also her mother's occasional lover and he turns out to be as passionless as she is. Jeff Bridges is the future town stud if survives Korea. Tim Bottoms is the dependable kid the coach sends to his lonely wife (Cloris Leachman) who seduces him and fears that he will outgrow her. Ben Johnson is the mentor to the boys and has a past with Ellen Burstyn, Sheppard's mother. His death signals the end.Filmed in glorious B & W the dusty streets are a metaphor that the town needs to modernize besides paving the streets. Great performances and Eileen Brennan could stand a young suitor as Amferene needs fresh blood.

GertrudeStern The Last Picture Show is a movie with supreme atmosphere. From the salty small town bartender to the guy who brings his own pool cue to the bar to the men placing bets on the outcome of the high school football game. It presents a great snapshot of a '50's town with one main drag and characters who are on a treadmill to nowhere.A majority of the "moral decay" referenced in the film's synopsis deals with people getting naked and particularly with a May-December relationship between a high school boy and his gym teacher's comely wife. The main plot centers on a love triangle between a youthful Jeff Bridges, Timothy Bottoms and the lovely Cybill Shepherd, whose beauty is only slightly diminished by the rottenness of her character.The movie definitely has one of the top 5 deflowering scenes I have ever witnessed. It happens on a pool table with close shots of Shepherd lacing her fingers through two leather latticed pool pockets and kneading at them in the manner of a cat.The soundtrack ladles up a ton of Hank Williams, which is really pleasing, and the final 15 minutes feature some outrageously literary moments that are very fun to watch.

grantss Good examination of 50s rural America, and the death thereof. Interesting character- and relationship-based plot. Direction by Peter Bogdanovich is solid. The black & white cinematography is irritating at first, as you feel that the main characters, in the primes of their lives, deserve colour. However, the B&W becomes more relevant the further into the movie you go.Great performances, from then-unknown actors in their earliest roles: Jeff Bridges, Cybil Shepherd (debut role), Timothy Bottoms (2nd movie). The veterans - Ellen Burstyn, Ben Johnson, Eileen Brennan, Cloris Leachman - are superb too.Only negatives are that the movie drifts a bit in the middle, and it is only the very powerful ending that makes it great. This, and the soundtrack - every song seems to be by Hank Williams. Didn't they have anything else on the radio in 1950s Texas?