One Paragraph Movie Review: Five Easy Pieces

One hundred and fifty-second film: Five Easy Pieces, a Jack Nicholson movie that has lots and lots of pieces, none of them easy. Jack plays a grown-up little rich boy seemingly rebelling against nice furnishings and considerable musical talent, taking out his obvious irritation over such egregious hardship on everyone he meets. The person he meets most frequently — and is thereby an asshole to most frequently — is waitress Rayette, played by Karen Black which happily gives me the opportunity to rhyme ‘Jack’ with ‘Black’ and dislike 70s sexism. You know, the 70s — when films made us believe that being an obnoxious, gaslighting sulk-pants got you loads of tail and precious few consequences. I think we’re supposed to dislike Nicholson’s character, which is to say I hope to god we’re not supposed to like him. The only sparks of joy in this movie comes from watching Jack try to order toast, and from realising that Toni Basil is in a lot more movies than anyone expected. Two and a bit chin-dimple origin stories out of five.