Director: Bob Rafelson
Note: Vague spoilers below
The King of Marvin Gardens is a classically 70s slow-moving character study. Chronicling a disaffected loser and his hustler brother working together on get-rich-quick schemes in faded 1970s Atlantic City, the film's plot could be said to be wandering, if it even exists at all. There's a very Cassavetes feel to the film - like Cassavetes films, it also has the slight problem of both trying to depict 'real' life, while also having its characters going through a whirlwind of emotions making grand theatrical gestures - i.e. acting in the way that we think 'actors' stereotypically conduct themselves when off-stage.
Bruce Dern is magnificent as an ingratiating confidence man - his winning smile often fading from his face as his fidgeting hands betray his actual inner state.
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