NICKELODEON (1976)

There's a scene in Peter Bogdanovich's tribute to early film-making when Ryan O'Neal, a goofy lawyer turned goofy director, has no idea what movie he's in the process of making: no plot, no real characters... which is ironic since director Bogdanovich might have felt the same way while making NICKELODEON... Or perhaps not... if the man who gave us brilliant classics like TARGETS and especially THE LAST PICTURE SHOW combined silent comedy slapstick with a romantic triangle with true Hollywood history in such a clumsy, uninteresting fashion... and Burt Reynolds has absolutely no chemistry as novice actor to O'Neal's novice director...

Ultimately, Bogdanovich blamed the studio for this catastrophe that basically ended his A-list career; but it's the IDEA that's flawed beyond the horribly uneven execution, not knowing which path to take in celebrating the first Hollywood independents war on the big studios (and vice versa), that, unlike PAPER MOON, is a road to absolutely nowhere... An irony because if anyone were to do a historic Hollywood piece it would be the man who began as a critic and wound up an overnight auteur sensation, but, perhaps Bogdanovich was simply too close to the material... Simply put, in doing a parody of old movie style he didn't center enough on the making of old movies. Grade: D

OLIVER'S STORY (1978)

Poor Ryan O'Neal couldn't catch a break. Even two films now considered classics didn't make money in the 1970's upon release. His daughter Tatum's BAD NEWS BEARS beat the pants off both Stanley Kubrick's BARRY LYNDON and Walter Hill's THE DRIVER...

While the comparably mainstream and now basically forgotten OLIVER'S STORY did even worse... ironic being the sequel to what's considered the first most lucrative pre-JAWS summer blockbuster, LOVE STORY, as Ryan himself had a reason/theory of why it failed: Intellectual thinking man's ingenue Nicola Pagett (resembling cult starlet Pamela Franklin) was supposed to be the girl he winds up with as, early on, they share a blind date, which is more interesting and with far more chemistry than any of O'Neal's scenes with wooden rich girl Candace Bergen, who, being the studio's choice of perfect and pretty, made it so Nicola's third act return was left on the cutting room floor. And while OLIVER'S STORY is not a bad picture... with a particularly clever style of quick-editing so the scene being cut-from seems deliberately unfulfilled (like happens in ROSEMARY'S BABY)... there are relaxing moments within the mahogany-hued classy-to-poor New York City where idealistic rich kid Oliver, a lawyer, fights a slum lord with student employees: yet there's simply no inner peace or contentment for the titular character or his titular story: all he needed was the right girl, who was perfectly whin reach. Rates: ***

Nicola Pagett as Joanna Stone in Oliver's Story

Nicola Pagett as Joanna Stone in Oliver's Story

Nicola Pagett with Ryan O'Neal in Oliver's Story

Ann Risley & Deborah Rush are two bar girls in Oliver's Story

BARRY LYNDON (STANLEY KUBRICK)

article: Hating Barry Lyndon
year: 1975 rating: ****1/2 

Given how many takes the infamously picky and in some cases reportedly sadistic filmmaker Stanley Kubrick put his actors through — in watching any of his films, you're not only seeing what he's directed but what he's selected...

Any and every scene or moment was by his choice to fit within the, in this particular case, gorgeous landscape of a period piece/costume drama that is actually the antithesis of an Epic feature film: bordering on what feels like, after numerous viewings, a kind of subliminal parody on what would usually be a fulfilling fictional (adapted from classic-era literature) biopic on a person that, to spend hours on their existence, would eventually lead to a significant purpose...

But keep in mind when watching BARRY LYNDON it's a motion picture that takes the epic form and intentionally throws it both out the door and in the viewer's face...

Famously renown as merely an aesthetic masterpiece, filmed with natural lighting and a region dotted with castles only dreamed up beyond even a picture book's rendition...

The real twist is the revelation of a truly despicable man, played wonderfully selfish by Ryan O'Neal, who cunningly antagonized otherwise good people long before he became the chief antagonist against, basically, everyone: despite starting out as a sympathetic hero simply because he's the main/title character being centered on.

LOVE STORY

title: LOVE STORY

year: 1970

cast: Ryan O'Neal, Ali McGraw, Tommy Lee Jones, Ray Milland

rating: *

As I watched this film about a woman who dies young, I wanted to also die young (middle aged, that is). It was bad. Ali McGraw... I do NOT know how she ever got famous: other than her beauty. In this, her first big role, she is horrible, robotic, wooden, annoying. Ryan O'Neal is okay but the story is as sappy as stupid as I've ever witnessed. And in keeping with the theme, of a young person dying before their time... I ejected the film far before it's time. But then again, for me, it was time for EJECT.

THE DRIVER

year: 1978

cast: Ryan O'Neal, Bruce Dern, Isabelle Adjani, Matt Clark

rating: ****

Less is more, and this film has more going for it than modern high-octane chase films. Ryan O'Neal plays a role written for Steve McQueen, and does it with dependable quiet slowburn. He's a getaway driver... the best around. The film really belongs to Bruce Dern as the detective on his trail. He follows O'Neal from witnesses to connections and pesters them into giving him information. But he cuts corners since no one gives him much to go on, and his frustration mounts. Three great car scenes (not all of them involving chases) envelope the movie perfectly. This is Walter Hill right before "The Warriors" doing noir/action with style and grace, but it's very subtle. For those looking for non-stop car crashes ala Hal Needham best go someplace else.