The Last Picture Show - 1971 - 4½ Stars

Actors:  Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges
Director:  Peter Bogdanovich

The Last Picture Show perfectly demonstrates the novella form of storytelling - there's too much material in here for it to be a short story, but this could be a novel of 200 pages.  I know it's adapted from a novel, but that isn't the point - the film manages the scope of a short novel.  Concerning two graduating high-school seniors and where life may or may not take them, The Last Picture Show is confident in all its choices.  It's well-told visually and the soundtrack, which seems to be diegetic, either coming out of car radios, jukeboxes, or home radios, is an unforgettable part of the tapestry of the film.  This is how film can be more powerful than a novel - it's one thing to say 'Song X' is playing during a particular scene in a novel, but it's nearly impossible to evoke that throughout without it becoming distracting.