The Last Picture Show
1971
Directed by Peter Bogdanovich
Netflix sleeve: There's not much to do in the windswept Texas hamlet of Anarene, where the town's only cinema is about to close forever. So high schoolers Sonny (Timothy Bottoms) and Duane (Jeff Bridges) lust after incorrigible flirt Jacy Farrow (Cybill Shepherd) while trying to chart their uncertain futures. When Duane heads for Korea after joining the service and Jacy gets shipped off to college, Sunny is left behind in a veritable ghost town.
This is one of the ones on the AFI list that I'd actually seen before. I rented it several years back because it was mentioned on Dawson's Creek once, helping to illustrate the Dawson-Joey-Pacey love triangle. Dawson tries to boil down the entire movie to the Duane-Jacy-Sonny love triangle when explaining the plot to Joey. I really don't think that's all this movie is about. Though, to be honest, I'm not sure what the whole thing was supposed to be about. Maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention. Maybe I'm suffering from a hazy memory thanks to the cold medication I was on all weekend. To me, it just seems like a random string of events that take place in the lives of these high school kids over the course of the year. A lot of it has to do with sex. But I think a lot of it, too, has to do with these kids just trying to figure out what they're going to do with their lives. Especially when they don't have a lot of options laid out in front of them in their tiny town. I really wasn't all that impressed by the movie. But I did find out recently that a sequel was made in 1990. Texasville was done by the same director and reunited the cast from this one. I'm just curious enough, I'll probably rent it one of these days.
hee hee hee - I have to laugh that you watched this based on a Dawson's Creek recommendation. You are so in your late 20's/early 30's, arent' you?
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