I watched this as part of a film discussion group recently; I'm afraid I didn't like it very much, though I wouldn't say at all that I hated it as some others did - it certainly received a mixed reception. It's been reported that the screenwriters, husband and wife Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne, spent just a day or two "on the street" and to me it shows. I realize that they were adapting a book which presumably came from a more nuanced experience, but their screenplay seemed to me at times very clichéd and at times laughable - the dialog between the group on the park bench around the middle of the film really struck me as phony, for example. Not that it was "Hollywood", exactly, but it still seemed very much like a white well-meaning educated liberal's take on things. And there's nothing wrong with that, it just wasn't to me very interesting, even in the segments that did strike me as more "authentic", like the opening reel or so.
Part of it I'll admit is me. I often have a hard time with vérité-style features, particularly when they are dealing with characters that aren't terribly developed (intentionally in this case), that have no real background, the sort of "everyman" and "everywoman" - every kid that could get into drugs or become a street person. It CAN be interesting, but it wasn't to me in this case, I kept thinking I'd much rather be watching a Cassavetes or Fassbinder film, which would have distinctive and quirky people that I could care about - this just didn't give me anything that kept me going. The cast is good, Pacino in particular and he's never been one of my favorite actors; and the last shot redeemed it a bit for me, it's quite moving and very open-ended in a way the rest of the film never is. Also the physical milieu is well sketched - although there are plenty of grungy NYC-set early 70s films that do just as good a job at that.
Very mixed for me, on a ratings scale I'll be generous and give it a 6 based on that last shot, but it was hovering nearer a 5 for most of its running time.
Watched on DVD.
Part of it I'll admit is me. I often have a hard time with vérité-style features, particularly when they are dealing with characters that aren't terribly developed (intentionally in this case), that have no real background, the sort of "everyman" and "everywoman" - every kid that could get into drugs or become a street person. It CAN be interesting, but it wasn't to me in this case, I kept thinking I'd much rather be watching a Cassavetes or Fassbinder film, which would have distinctive and quirky people that I could care about - this just didn't give me anything that kept me going. The cast is good, Pacino in particular and he's never been one of my favorite actors; and the last shot redeemed it a bit for me, it's quite moving and very open-ended in a way the rest of the film never is. Also the physical milieu is well sketched - although there are plenty of grungy NYC-set early 70s films that do just as good a job at that.
Very mixed for me, on a ratings scale I'll be generous and give it a 6 based on that last shot, but it was hovering nearer a 5 for most of its running time.
Watched on DVD.