Ringing in the new year on my column at Film Comment with an article about Robert Zemeckis’ 1980 film Used Cars: hilarious, rambunctious, and heartless.
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Great write-up of a criminally under seen and overlooked movie. This was on cable a lot in the “early days” of cable, and I probably saw it a dozen times, but now it’s been forever and I’m dying to watch it again after reading this. What a fun movie! Kurt Russell’s character should be in the pantheon somewhere but for some reason this movie seems to have been forgotten. Not by me.
Todd – yay! Not forgotten by me either – and judging from the exhilarated response on Twitter it has many fans – but yeah, it’s at least for sure critically neglected. Pauline Kael is the only one who really saw it and devoted space to it.
See if you can get the DVD with the commentary track – it’s Zemeckis, Gale and Russell and it’s hilarious fun!
It was so fun to watch this movie again. Jack Warden dead in the car just KILLS ME but there are soooo many funny bits.
When they “re-kill” Warden, oh my God! I specifically remember the movie starting with the literal “reeling in” of a customer using money on a fish hook, and it gets more cynical from there. I wish they made more movies like this. And you’re right, most movies today (see everything by Apatow) just PRETEND to be anarchic, only to pull their punches in the last act as the characters “grow” up and out of that mindset. Used Cars stays true to itself the whole way.
I’d LOVE that commentary and should get it immediately. Commentary tracks on a GOOD movie with these types of people are gold to me, some of my favorite are Boogie Nights (I could listen to PTA talk movies on a loop for all time) , Zodiac, Platoon, Goodfellas, Tarantino on True Romance. You can learn so much about movie making from them.
I’m so glad you wrote about this movie, it’s like finding an old friend!
// And you’re right, most movies today (see everything by Apatow) just PRETEND to be anarchic, only to pull their punches in the last act as the characters “grow” up and out of that mindset. //
Todd – the reference to Apatow is apt!! He is a very conventional person, at heart. I’ve always thought so. He believes in the status quo, the “trappings”. Which is fine. A lot of people do. But it’s why his films don’t launch into the stratosphere, for me. I like things more subversive, in general.
Used Cars … everyone is irredeemable, and yet charming! I also love how Barbara – the daughter – is, of course, NOT corrupt – and yet at the same time, when she “falls for” Kurt Russell – it’s not because she’s dumb or gullible. It’s because he’s legit charming – and something spontaneous happens between them on their date – something they BOTH feel. and yet this is not played for sentimental value, like “Oh, look at the cynical man fall for a sweet woman” – Somehow, STILL, Used Cars keeps its cynicism – WITHOUT throwing her under the bus.
// Commentary tracks on a GOOD movie with these types of people are gold to me, //
Me too. and commentary tracks are very quickly vanishing – what with streaming, etc. We will lose all of this information!
and yeah – the Used Cars one is great. Same with the commentary track for I Wanna Hold Your Hand – I learned a lot! Wild days for them in the beginning – they made these movies with huge wild crowd scenes and multiple story-lines – very ambitious for people just starting out. I really admire that.