One Paragraph Movie Review: The Last Picture Show

Three hundred and sixteenth film: The Last Picture Show, a 1971 film about teenagers in a small Texas town in 1951. With loads of actors you recognise (but much, much younger), the film depicts young people having exactly the kind of times young people with curious minds and genitals have (but much, much sadder). Boredom plus a dying town plus not much money plus screwed up parents means that some kids get drunk, some kids die, some kids go to war, some kids (looking at you, Cybill Shepherd) use their sexuality for power they don’t understand, some kids have affairs with the coach’s wife, and some kids eat cheeseburgers. There’s a nude pool party with some pubic hair, a fist fight in the street with a bloody eye, and a general sense of change that the town’s residents don’t know what to do with. One of the Bridges, one of the Quaids, a black and white authenticity, and a bunch of people staying only two or three dusty steps ahead of their depression. But like, good. Three unnaturally clean oil refinery helmets out of five.