I'm still trying to catch up on classic movies when I can, so I watched Paper Moon recently. (And, after watching it, I'm thinking the movie I'd really like to see again -- particularly since I've been thinking a lot about how movies for and about kids have changed since I was the age my sons are now -- is Little Darlings, which isn't available on video now and I don't expect will be any time soon.)Tatum O'Neal won an Oscar for her role in Paper Moon -- still the youngest actress ever to do so, and even more impressive when you realize this was her first movie. She's an orphan in Depression-era Kansas (Addie Loggins) who gets foisted onto small-time con man (her real-life father, Ryan O'Neal, as Moses Pray, who may be Addie's father), since he's supposedly going towards her only living relatives, over the state line in Missouri.
Paper Moon is one of those quintessentially '70s comedy/dramas -- it doesn't run to formula, but mixes humor and danger in the way real life usually does but movies have since learned not to. But the reasons to watch it are the O'Neals, father and daughter, who both put in great performances. Everyone else in it is there for an episode or two of their travels, though Madeline Kahn, as a woman who is not precisely a prostitute but whose favors are definitely negotiable, makes a strong impression as well.
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Listening to: Holy Fuck - Lovely Allen
via FoxyTunes
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