![]() ![]() Patrice Lucien Cochet’s photography suggests the magical atmosphere and gritty reality the director was apparently shooting for. Technically, “The Good Life” is an impressive first film for Berra. And Jason’s working class family comes off as the kind of one-dimensional people who exist only in movies, especially his over-the-top brother-in-law (Donal Logue). The Capitol theater, for instance, runs a repertory program that would make a New York movie house proud for an audience of two people night after night. While it is impossible not to be moved by suffering like this, circumstances often seem more contrived than real. The electricity is shut off at Jason’s house, he gets beat up by the local thug and his beloved father figure Gus is losing his memory and barely recognizes him. ![]() True to form, things go from bad to worse before they get better. What’s clear is that she is a desperate character trying to cut her surprisingly close ties to the football culture in the worst way. Deschanel’s big-hearted performance - including a lovely rendition of “On the Sunnyside of the Street” - makes the character appealing, if not quite convincing. It’s hard to know what to believe about Francis’ stories of suicide, drugs and hospitization. Jason’s life is a barrage of insults and defeats, the latest being the death of his despised father, who left his son with the message “Life is suffering and no one will ever love you.” No wonder he’s lost. Frances and Jason are, of course, soul mates, destined to ride into the sunset together.Īt this point, Berra could have cued The Animals singing “I Got to Get Out of this Place,” but he prefers more mournful strings and piano. The details of her life also bear a striking resemblance to those of Garland’s. While helping his friend Gus (Harry Dean Stanton) show old movies such as “The Harvey Girls,” in walks Frances (Zooey Deschanel) like a shady character out of a film noir, who claims she was a childhood singer. Jason’s one pleasure in life is working at the Capitol theater, one of the last of the dying breed of neighborhood movie houses. Although he wears a wig, he is a man set apart by his condition. He works pumping gas, trying to get by and support his mother, but the defining fact of his life is that he has no body hair, the result of an immune system malfunction. The lead character is named Jason Prayer (Mark Webber), lest you miss what kind of state his life is in. ![]()
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