One Paragraph Movie Review: Being There

Thirty-third film: Being There, a 1979 film starring Peter Sellers as a less-charming Forrest Gump prototype. The story of an uncomplicated man whose monotone comments about gardening are mistaken for metaphorical financial insight at a federal level, this movie is exactly as fun as that sounds. It’s a film about the power of a good suit, with a couple of racial and homosexual stereotypes and the lasting uncomfortable image of Shirley MacLaine masturbating — no mean feat with those fingernails — mixed in. The marginally bizarre ending doesn’t fit the rest of the movie, primarily because it’s interesting. Meh. One and a half Big Bird cameos out of five.