If the sequel is a mixed success, The Last Picture Show, particularly in this restored version, holds up like gangbusters. It's truly one of the finest films ever made about small-town America.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Apr 17, 2024

The key arc that all three of its young protagonists – Sonny (Timothy Bottoms), Jacy (Cybill Shepherd), and Duane (Jeff Bridges) – go through is the realization that they have the power to hurt other people.

| Nov 28, 2023

An American classic in every sense.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Nov 19, 2023

Because of its loose structure, the even focus on detail, and the remarkably free hand of the director, The Last Picture Show is the brilliant realization of the most important new tendencies in American films.

| Oct 26, 2023

Because of its compassion, its intelligence, and its artistic integrity while dealing with what is part nostalgia, The Last Picture Show may be one of those rare "instant classics."

| Oct 26, 2023

The Last Picture Show is a masterpiece. It is not merely the best American movie of a rather dreary year; it is the most impressive work by a young American director since Citizen Kane.

| Oct 26, 2023

It's quite a remarkable film, in virtually every way, created by a young New York director, whose feeling for filmmaking obviously runs both deep and strong, and a young Texas author with equally keen feelings for his land.

| Oct 26, 2023

Clearly, the outstanding performance comes from Cloris Leachman, as the dowdy, pathetic coach's wife, who will settle for love -- any kind of love... She is tremendous, and totally unforgettable.

| Oct 26, 2023

Bogdanovich, keeping his audience in a suspended state of compassionate amusement, illuminates boredom from within and without and makes it entertaining.

| Oct 26, 2023

The character, Sam the Lion, emerges with a status equal to a Duke Mantee, Cool Hand Luke or a Rhett Butler. Somehow, he is larger than the film and the role. Mr. Johnson emerges a star.

| Oct 26, 2023

The Last Picture Show is an exceptional and original work, not so much a movie-movie as a film buff's film, an exercise in regret and a reminder of various losses.

| Oct 26, 2023

It doesn't take very long into this black-and-white film (by the end of its 119 minutes you must surely recognize the potency, the starkness in this tint) to realize that a deeply moving motion picture experience is unfolding.

| Oct 26, 2023

All the principals deliver striking acting performances. But certainly Johnson's, with his simple, touching speech by the lake recalling the days of glory... deserves a supporting actor Oscar.

| Oct 25, 2023

The movie gets to you quietly. You are likely to succumb to its melancholy spell without knowing quite why. But you realize, with absolute certainty, that you are watching something extraordinary in the way of filmmaking.

| Oct 25, 2023

At a time when everything about movies is frantic and vulgar, it's rather nice to savor a homey, quiet film like The Last Picture Show -- one that's witty, wise and even a little wistful.

| Oct 25, 2023

Ben Johnson is a magnificent Sam the Lion, a grizzled, aging cowboy who seems to have walked out of an old John Ford picture which he did, (many of them).

| Oct 25, 2023

A perfectly beautiful movie, because Bogdanovich knows perfectly the limits of styles and forms and he keeps it clear and pure, within the limits he set for himself.

| Oct 25, 2023

Like few films in recent years, Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show ends with us wanting to see more of the people who occupy the small town world that is Anarene, Tex., in 1951. This emotion is not easily achieved.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 25, 2023

As drama, the film is slow, evolving at a pace that may tire you. Stick with it. It is funny, sexy, bleak and depressing.

| Oct 25, 2023

Whether for its honesty and careful blend of pathos and humor or the virtuoso performances of Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cloris Leachman, Ellen Burstyn, and especially Ben Johnson, The Last Picture Show... is a powerful and moving portrait of a town.

| Oct 25, 2023