OVP: You're a Big Boy Now (1966)

Film: You're a Big Boy Now (1966)
Stars: Peter Kastner, Elizabeth Hartman, Geraldine Page, Rip Torn, Michael Dunn, Tony Bill, Julie Harris, Karen Black
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Supporting Actress-Geraldine Page)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 1/5 stars

Francis Ford Coppola defined cinema in the 1970's.  For decades his name has been synonymous with quality cinema, and I mean this is totally appropriate.  He wrote or directed movies like Patton, The Godfathers Part I and II, American Graffiti, The Conversation, and Apocalypse Now! during that time period-seriously, you'd be hard pressed to find many filmmakers who could sustain such a streak.  And yet, in the decades since, his movies have run the gamut from wildly experimental (Koyaanisqatsi) to the commercially unsuccessful (The Cotton Club) to the critically-maligned (Jack).  Yes, there were some commercial and artistic successes, but two of his major contemporaries from that period went on to major success in later years (Spielberg, Scorsese) and even George Lucas became very successful as a producer (and a Visual Effects piooner).  So I went into You're a Big Boy Now with a genuine curiosity-what would a film from the man at the very beginning of his career reflect?  Would it be a hidden masterpiece projecting the genius streak that would come in the following decade, or a forgettable film that would blend well in his movies from the past twenty years?

To my chagrin, I found that neither was true, but this was still bad news.  You're a Big Boy Now reads like a student film that somehow got a slew of Oscar nominees to star in it (Hartman was coming off of an historic nomination as the youngest woman ever nominated for Best Actress at the time in A Patch of Blue, and Geraldine Page was three films into her much-noted Oscar losing streak).  The movie is aimless, and pointless, and severely dated, and quite frankly abysmal.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie attempts to be about something, of course (don't all cinematic ventures, even the failed ones), but fails miserably.  The film tells the tale of young Bernard Chanticleer (Kastner), who is the child of a psychotically oedipal mother (Page) and disinterested father (Torn).  The movie shows how Bernard isn't really good at anything, and now nineteen, is trying to make his way in the world by living in Manhattan and working for his father at the Public Library.  The film takes a quick look at the counterculture that was brewing in New York City during that era; the music, the hair, the clothes, the casual sex-they all have that groovy sensibility that we've associated with the 1960's in the Big Apple, but getting the aesthetics right is hardly something that should be rewarded.

Kastner's central character is just a jumble of cliches.  The film invites comparisons to the Mike Nichols that came the following year, The Graduate, but Benjamin Braddock had the sensibility to make his confusion interesting.  Bernard is either overly-sexed or bogged-down with strange ideas about sex before marriage, he either hates his mother or secretly worships her (the scene with her sending him locks of her hair is beyond disturbing, particularly when we see that he keeps them).  There is no consistency in the main character, and the film doesn't have the sense to have him "being torn apart"-he's just a blank slate that randomly decides to go for his dream girl Barbara (Hartman, inexplicably nominated for a Golden Globe) over the more conventional Amy (Black).  The only time that the film is remotely any fun is the side character of Raef (Bill), who is a sexy lothario that clearly wants to make our young Bernard experience the world, even if he doesn't let the audience in on the secret.

And I know that Page is considered by many to be a great actress, but I have to admit, I've yet to see the evidence.  I'm three films into her eight Oscar nominations (so you know there's plenty of chances for me to change my mind), but this is bad acting, on par with the terrible acting she did in Summer and Smoke (and she was just...fine in The Trip to Bountiful, but hardly Oscar-worthy).  Since I have five more to go, please tell me that I get something worth seeing.  I'm guessing Sweet Bird of Youth or Interiors is going to be my respite, but after being twice-burned and once underwhelmed, I'm hardly in the mood.

Those are my thoughts on this, if we're being charitable, "experimental" movie-what are yours?  Has anyone else seen it (it's relatively unknown considering its acting nomination)?  Does anyone want to make the case for Page with AMPAS or Hartman with HFPA?  The comments are right there if you do.