The Insomniac’s Movie Review: The King of Marvin Gardens
By Bud White on November 15, 2008 at 12:30 AM in Media, Radio, Media, Television
Bud White loves movies. His name comes from a great movie, L.A. Confidential. If you like these posts, and want to see more, please let Bud know in the comments. Bud is very eager to write more about all the movies that both you and he love. Share your favorites too, and ask Bud if he can write about some of the movies you love the most. — Lena Grove (a William Faulkner character)
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My wife claims that I don’t like to sleep. It’s not true. I love sleeping, but it doesn’t come easy to me. So instead of running in my head the endless loop of the last election, I watch movies.
The buyer for my local library is a saint. I don’t know who it is, but he or she has a penchant for film noir, French dramas and films from the 1970s.
My favorite films over the last 6 months are those made in the 1970s. Unlike many movies of today — which are often remakes or sequels, comic books on film, or cheesy teen movies — the best films from the 1970s are true artistic expressions of their creators.
There are the obvious stand-out films from that era: The Godfather, Jaws, All the President’s Men, Three Days of the Condor, The Conversation, Chinatown, and many others. But I’ve discovered other exceptional films which are less celebrated, and I will be reviewing them as The Insomniac’s Movie Reviews. Here’s my first recommendation:
The King of Marvin Gardens (1972)
Rated 4 Ambien (out of 5) ****
It’s brave film-making: the first 10 minutes are a close-up on Jack Nicholson’s face. He sits in a darkened radio studio and tells stories. This is the story of Nicholson’s brother (played by Bruce Dern, father of actress Laura Dern), a small-time hoodlum who is both self-important and delusional. The dialogue is superb and reminiscent of Eugene O’Neill’s A Long Day’s Journey into Night. Indeed, because the story is propelled by dialogue, it has the feel of a play. Dern’s character travels with his lovers, Sally (Ellen Burstyn), and her flirtatious step-daughter, played by Julia Ann Robinson. The acting is phenomenal, and pained. Burstyn’s character is the aging lover who competes against her own step-daughter, an Oedipal mix which leads to murder. The film becomes increasingly surreal as the characters (except for Nicholson) lose their grip on reality. Nicholson is the bookish radio disc jockey who watches this threesome, like we watch them, at first bemused and then horrified.
In the clip below Sally (Ellen Burstyn), the spurned lover, communicates her feelings through self-destruction:
What are your favorite films from the 1970s?
by Ronald Scott
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