Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

I recently watched it again after many years. I remember rating it very highly when I saw it 20 years ago. I was a bit apprehensive because it seems that movies we loved before don't always hold up. Anyway, I needn't have worried. What a beautifully melancholic film this is. The cast are excellent, especially Timothy Bottoms as the sad eyed Sonny and Cloris Leachman as the coach's wife. The cinematography is also amazing and the black and white images really add to the tone, becoming almost a character in themselves. Bogdanovich was on a roll here and what a shame that after What's up Doc and Paper Moon he entered a slow decline.My favorite scene is when Ben Johnson takes the boys out and reminisces about his past with Ellen Burstyn's character. In some ways this scene is one of the finest in American cinema and is heartbreaking. I envy those who haven't seen it as you have a treat in store.

THE LAST PICTURE SHOW is a low budget, black and white character piece exploring the situation faced by youths coming of age in a dead-end Texas town in 1951. It's notable for helping a number of fresh-faced actors break into Hollywood; many of the cast here have gone on to great fame and fortune, and yet the film itself is a little disappointing, as is so often the way with these pictures that receive endless praise over the years.This film features more like a television production in terms of scale and I found it quite unaffecting, especially given the fact that many of the characters are self-centred and unlikeable. The exception is Cybill Shepherd, whose breathless beauty and carefully poised character is a highlight; she would later go on to greater things, not least TAXI DRIVER, but she's perfect here, capturing a sense of innocence mixed with desperation.The male characters fare less better, although the acting remains strong. Jeff Bridges plays a brash youth with some heart hidden away inside; Timothy Bottoms does the kind of kookiness that would later serve him well in the disaster flick Roller-coaster. Watch out for Randy Quaid in a small cameo, with the likes of Ellen Burstyn and Clu Gulager prop up the adult cast. THE LAST PICTURE SHOW is a film in which nothing much really happens, but it is realistic even if the effect is ultimately depressing. I thought Lucas's American GRAFFITI explored similar themes in a much more entertaining way.

In this 1971 Columbia Pictures Peter Bogdanovich-directed screen version of the novel written by Larry McMurtry, I could not see enough reasons to justify it being nominated for any top award, though I will qualify that to an extent: Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman, and the beautiful and drawing icon Cybil Shepherd were very capable in their individual roles. Also, an excellent job was done with the nostalgia effects, and since I entered the first grade in 1952-the year Jo Stafford's song "You Belong to Me" was one of the number one hits of the year-I did receive an adequate idea of what the early '50's was like in many ways, so I do think this was a great film from that standpoint.It was appropriate that the movie was filmed in black and white, for it indicated a basic fact about movies of that era: most movies were filmed in black and white, and thus there was a scarcity of movies filmed in color at that time. The story line was simple: a small Texas town is dying, and toward the end two boys go to the last picture playing in the local movie theatre.But where was the plot? There basically was none. Concomitantly, where was the substance? Young people go skinny-dipping and have their big fling at sex. The movie was something of a collage, since too many pieces (brief scenes representing different types of persons, different ideas being represented) were simply thrown together. There was no plot present. Therefore, for the Best Picture of the Year award it hardly qualified.

Based on the 1966 novel of the same name by Larry McMurtry, this is an excellent, often moving and occasionally depressing coming of age film. Taking place from November 1951 to October 1952, it concerns the bleak, desolate little town of Anarene, Texas which has been slowly dying for years and its inhabitants' sad, unfulfilled lives of wasted potential. What a great feel good film for the Christmas season! The film has an extremely strong script by McMurtry and Peter Bogdanovich while Bogdanovich's direction hits all of the right notes. The beautiful black-and-white cinematography of Robert Surtees captures the look and feel of an early 1950s film very effectively but the same could hardly be said of the content as even its milder aspects would have fallen foul of the Hays Code. The film is permeated by a heavy sense of regret. In some respects, it reminded me of "The Third Man" in that its grim setting reflected the damaged lives of its characters. The film is basically an elegy to a dying town.The film stars Timothy Bottoms in a great performance as Sonny Crawford, a high school senior and one of the better adjusted, comparatively speaking, characters. In the beginning, Sonny is listless and is simply going through the motions with his girlfriend of a year Charlene Duggs so he breaks up with her. Like many of the townspeople, he feels as if there is something missing from his life and that he has no reason to live in Anarene other than that he is already there. After his high school coach Coach Popper asks him to drive her to the hospital, he begins an affair with his wife Ruth, played in a wonderful performance by Cloris Leachman. Ruth is severely depressed because of her poor and unsatisfying relationship with her husband - who is hinted to be gay - and finds solace in the arms of the much younger Sonny. As Anarene is a town where everyone knows everyone else and, more to the point, everyone else's business, their affair becomes an open secret but it is left ambiguous whether Coach Popper knows or even cares. After six months, Sonny abandons Ruth for a girl his own age named Jacy Farrow, which leads to Ruth becomes even more depressed. At the end of the film, however, he returns to her. He does so because he is upset and has nowhere else to go but he does seem truly remorseful. Sonny makes some serious mistakes but I do think that he is a good person. In a rather upsetting scene, his friends hire a prostitute for a younger boy named Billy who suffers from intellectual disabilities, ostensibly so he can lose his virginity but really for their own amusement. Sonny initially goes along with the plan, which does not go well. However, he is the only one to take sympathy on Billy afterwards and to apologise as he is very fond and protective of him. Appropriately enough, Billy was played by Bottoms' younger brother Sam.For his ten minute role as the local institution Sam the Lion, Ben Johnson won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar and it is easy to see why. In one of the film's best scenes which won him the Oscar, Sam recalls his failed relationship with his one true love in a beautifully written and performed speech which is imbued with loss and regret. He comments that about 80% of marriages are miserable which would be very depressing but, by Anarene standards, he is probably being a little optimistic. Ellen Burstyn gives one of the best performances as Jacy's mother Lois Farrow, a rich but unhappy housewife who has numerous affairs, most notably with her husband's employee Abilene. She deserved the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. As her daughter, Cybill Shepherd is very good. Jacy is an interesting character as she is very manipulative. When a rich boy named Bobby Sheen refuses to have sex with her because she is a virgin, she finally agrees to have sex with her longtime boyfriend Duane Jackson, only to dump him almost immediately afterwards. Things do not go according to plan, however, as Bobby has gotten married in the meantime. Out of sheer boredom, she follows in her mother's footsteps and has sex with Abilene herself but that does not work out either. She then pursues a relationship with Sonny and, after a while, proposes that they get married. While Sonny certainly has feelings for her, he does not love her but nevertheless agrees. However, it turns out after she left a note to her parents telling them of their elopement and the marriage is not even consummated. She apparently only married Sonny for the thrill of disobeying her parents. Even her mother tells Sonny that he was better off with Ruth. Jeff Bridges is very good as Duane but I am surprised that he was likewise nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar as I don't think that his performance was on that level. The film also features nice appearances from Clu Glulager as Abilene, Eileen Brennan as the world weary waitress Genevieve and Randy Quaid as the rather creepy rich boy Lester Marlow.Overall, this is an excellent film which explores the sad lives of people in a town that has lost all reason to exist. It was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar and deservedly so. One thing that I found very interesting about the numerous sex scenes is that they are all humiliating, either during the event or afterwards. In this sense, the characters' sex lives reflect every other aspect of their lives in Anarene. Towards the end of the film, the cinema shuts down and this marks the end of the town's cultural life. When Sam the Lion died, he took the town with him. It just took a few extra months to die.