A knockout scene by that grand old battler, John Huston.

| Jan 10, 2018

The movie's bleak, but it's funnier than most comedies, and it suggests that life's toughness doesn't preclude joyfulness.

| Nov 17, 2015

So you say to yourself, this Fat City is pretty damn realistic, even if you know in your heart that "realistic" and Hollywood should not be printed on the same page-otherwise paper ignites. Still, you're marveling at it.

| Jun 17, 2013

Huston and his performers give the material an elating, transcendental verve, especially during the sequences in which words fail the characters and interminable silences take over.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 17, 2011

A terse, sharp, downbeat but compassionate look at the underside of smalltown American life in the west.

| Jan 29, 2010

The movie is crafty work and very much a show. In one way or another, right down to the percussively abrupt open ending, it's all about being hammered.

| Sep 15, 2009

Marvellous, grimly downbeat study of desperate lives and the escape routes people construct for themselves, stunningly shot by Conrad Hall.

Full Review | Jan 26, 2006

The movie's edges are filled with small, perfect character performances.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 23, 2004

Mr. Gardner's screenplay, of course, is something quite special, full of the kind of dialogue that movies usually can't afford, that defines time, place, mood, and character while seemingly going nowhere.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 20, 2003

John Huston's 1972 restatement of his theme of perpetual loss is intelligently understated.

| Jan 1, 2000