Two-Lane Blacktop
This one has an atmosphere not quite like that of any movie I've ever seen, sort of in a way similar to Badlands without all that stuff happening or maybe what would happen if Antonioni directed a road movie. The unnamed characters drive around, talk shop, and challenge each other to vaguely defined and interminable races. Feelings of post-hippie malaise permeate. James Taylor, Dennis Wilson, and Laurie Bird aren't really called upon to act so much as they're called upon to sit around looking doped up, but they (particularly Taylor and Bird) do so to great effect. Warren Oates is alone among the stars actually doing some acting, and he does a good job of it. The only problem is that, in its attempts to evoke ennui it ends up just as often causing it. I had a hard time keeping still and focused for certain stretches, and suspect that a good half hour could've been cut off the film to positive effect. Still, I dug it.
Posted
Wednesday, October 17, 2007 1:22 PM
For whatever reason, one of my favorite movies. Knowing that Wilson, Bird, and Oates are all dead, and Taylor never made another movie, sort of adds a mood to it for me. Instead of ennui, I was channelling nostalgia and regret, maybe because in '71 I was about that age.