Once in a while, you stumble across something that's been there all along, but you've just overlooked it again and again...
I've always been a Paul Newman fan, especially of his later films -- after "The Sting." It seems to me that, like John Wayne, he spent his younger years and earlier roles figuring out who he was, and then showed us that man in his maturity. Newman was a lib/prog, but I've somehow always believed that I'd be welcome to argue politics with him over a cold beer or three and still be friends at the end. But anyhow...
"Nobody's Fool" is a 1994 Newman vehicle that I somehow missed for twenty years. I'm glad I finally found it. Along with Newman, Jessica Tandy (in the last year of her life), Melanie Griffith (before Botox), and Bruce Willis (with hair!) headline the cast. There's also an early appearance by a young Philip Seymour Hoffman as the hapless Raymer, a town cop. Newman was nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award, and the screenplay was also nominated for an Oscar.
The movie is a slice of small-town America. It finds ways to celebrate both the highs and the lows in the life of Newman's character. Best of all, it surrounds him with a collection of very real people who interact in both utterly predictable and completely unpredictable ways.
I laughed my ass off. And once or twice I felt like crying. I recommend the living shit out of this movie. It's on Netflix. Enjoy the trailer.
Movie Trailer - Nobody's Fool (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKYsA2-_uk4#)
:thumbsup: I have the tape. :thumbsup: