LOVING - irvin kershner - 7.2 / 10

They don't make 'em like this anymore. That's a common complaint that I've never quite understood. They don't make 'em like they used to because they can't, that era is over. And most of the time, when people say things like that (and it's usually someone like Ebert or Roeper) I think they're just being pointlessly nostalgic. And besides, for the most part, what they're lamenting is crap.

Loving, however, is a different animal. When I say they don't make 'em like this anymore, I don't mean that they don't make films with bastards as the main characters (because they often do in the indie world) and I don't mean that the film has a special realism about it that you don't find in today's films (look at something like Boys Don't Cry, it has the same type of "realism"). What I mean is that you don't see films today with the balls to have not particularly attractive people being the focus of lust and desire. This happens all the time in the real world (people are attracted to money, power, confidence, whatever) but in movies these days it's always the looks (or, if it's the other stuff, the looks are there, too). There's just something I love about the idea of an ugly man having his way with women who, for the most part, are attractive but could stand to lose a few pounds.

So, I guess when I say they don't make movies like Loving anymore, what I'm really referring to is the realism of people that the film has that you never see today. And that realism of people combined with the sort of slapdash realism of DP Gordon Willis's cinematography gives the film a voyeuristic attitude that is just so casually cool. I mean, the guy (who's a downright bastard) might just be walking along on the street but the way that he looks and the way that it's shot completely holds my interest. Yes, the story is somewhat interesting and the dialogue is passable but it's the way that Peter Segal and Eva Marie Saint move and just exist in the frames of this film that is the source of its pleasure for me. I guess that's a pretty boring reason to like a film but there you have it. It won't be enough for everyone but it was enough for me.