esrosedotblog

PRICK

George Segal plays a first rate bastard with a drinking problem in today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film

Loving (1970)

Self centered to the extreme, Segal plays a magazine illustrator who is after a big account which he hates and, on the way, treats everyone else like shit including his wife (Eva Marie Saint) and kids.

He has a mistress and is ready to bang the next available neighbor's wife.

This is also a grimy picture of a suburbia that time has forgotten; the Westport Connecticut crowd who commuted to the city to pursue publishing and advertising jobs; a tight, little, tweedy club of men who are trying too hard and not quite succeeding.

I visited this milieu for awhile as I did some market research work for these people. Their work was fueled by adrenalin and alcohol and they were all just a little too friendly and happy to make it convincing.

This movie is harrowing to watch. There is no resolution. Things get worse as they get better. The more things change the more they stay the same. Ebert quotes "the screwing they get isn't worth the screwing they get".

Alcoholism is not its theme, but a leitmotif. Segal is a prick; drunk or sober.

It is hard to like anything about this film but it is beautifully photographed and has some wonderful acting and is riveting. You cannot stop watching.

At the end there is a terrible incident of candid camera in which Segal is fucking with his neighbor's wife at a huge party. Everyone sees it.

No one turns the camera or the tv off.

We are like that as we sit and watch this film. We cannot quit watching this man's denial as he slides from bad into worse.

I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5 but I can't say that I was happy to watch it.