Jayne Mansfield's Car

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Billy B It had its funny moments Slow at times but worth watching Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/25 Full Review Martin B Very strange movie. Loaded with some really good actors doing great acting but the script lets them all down. Like they're trying to do a southern themed masterpiece with a British twist based on simmering family, patriarchal based dysfunction like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof but it doesn't come together in any kind of cohesive manner. The ending just left me asking that's it? Anyway I loved it simply to see great actors do the most with the lines they were given. Especially Katherine LaNassa, perfectly cast as the cheating, aging southern bell who at times looked like she could tie the whole thing together but in the end felt used and discarded. A swing and a miss for Billy Bob who shot for cinematic greatness coming many years after the acclaim of Sling Blade but came up short. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/07/25 Full Review Dawn K Worst of the worst. Rated 0.5/5 Stars •  Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 01/28/25 Full Review Mike M Wow I LOVED this movie!! Called both my boys after. Thanks all for this. Not what the low reviews are about. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 08/22/23 Full Review Ted B 3.5 stars; I don't even know where to start talking about this movie. While watching it, I never really picked up on a theme. It seemed like a series of old back-country stories not well strung together. . That was more or less what I expected being a Billy Bob Thornton creation. Instead of it being about one character like in "Swing Blade", it was about a number of characters centered about the family patriarch played by Robert Duvall. The characters were very real, But just not compelling. I am using the term family very loosely here. It was more like a group of people living together sharing some kinship. It isn't until the end when the youngest son decides to go off and join the Army that i picked up on a theme The time period was 1969 and the Vietnam war was still raging. There was much discussion about war experience during the picture for all the sons. I realized that the ongoing theme was the PTSD condition each of the sons and father carried with them. It became exasperated when forced into a culture class (American and British) between families, that shared their mother between them, when she dies. With all of my disappointments being said, I did enjoy the masterful acting from Duval and John Hurt, done in non-challenging roles. Good performances were also given by Thornton and Kevin Bacon. This movie was made over 10 years ago, When all of this cast was in their prime. It's a shame that the roles given weren't more challenging. For me, this is a very negative review. So why 3.5 stars?.... 2 reasons. I truly love Robert Duvall in just about every role I've seen him play. So there's that bias. And, I viewed this film, as a father of three sons, through the eyes of the Duval character. It hit home to me in many ways. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 07/08/23 Full Review James W Yes, it is sprawling, and yes, there are myriad secondary plots all occurring simultaneously, but all the critics fail to recognize the overriding theme of the movie. And no, it is not dysfunctional family dynamics, nor is it the clash of British and southern American cultures. It is a movie about PTSD. That is the common wound that each of the male characters carry with them - PTSD from different war experiences (PTSD suffered by Jim-bo, who did not even see combat), by different generations, in different wars, and by different cultures. And each of the male characters is damaged from it in his own way. (The female characters in the movie, not experiencing and not understanding the condition, play only minor roles). The genius of the movie is not in the story; the genius of the movie is that it uses the narrative - including the dysfunctional family dynamics, the clash of British and southern American cultures, and the myriad secondary plots - as the vehicle to shine a light on how the experience of war irreparably damages the lives of war's survivors. The final scene, the long closeup of the pained, anguished look in Kevin Bacon's eyes when his 18-year-old son announces that he has just enlisted in the army to fight in Vietnam is devastating. I found the movie a powerful portrayal of the suffering caused by the trauma of war and a pessimistic presage that future generations of war survivors will inevitably endure the same fate. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 07/06/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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