Unlimitedia Sick Product of a Sick System

VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

pyrocitor The King of Marvin Gardens opens with one of the most riveting monologues in cinema history. Nearly seven minutes of uninterrupted close-up, locked in with Jack Nicholson's faint frown and hypnotic, lugubrious voice impassively imparting a context-free tale of personal trauma, it's enigmatic, fascinating, and grimly impossible to tear away from. Naturally, within minutes, it's also debunked as utterly fictitious, and the punchline for a bitter joke which is nearly as bleak in itself. It's impossible to envision a better microcosmic teaser for the film to follow, as Bob Rafelson's follow-up to his incisive Five Easy Pieces is a perennial study of opposites: class and gaudiness, glum playfulness, quixotic, harsh realism, and fatalistic optimism. It's surreal enough that you struggle to trust any of it. But it's too magnetic for you to ever look away. Narrowly squeezing into the field of 70s con-movies before The Sting would take them by storm, Rafelson's Kingdom is just as sly, but as forlorn as its predecessor is bubbly (no bouncy ragtime score here). Putting the 'dreamy' in pipe-dream, Rafelson contrasts the opulent artifice of his expansive, seaside Atlantic City setting (shot, with astonishing beauty by legendary cinematographer László Kovács, as a barren, apocalyptic wasteland) and the grimy, small-time hustlers and their broken dreams of hoodwinking Japanese executives into investing in Hawaiian casinos therein. It's a slow, meditative, frequently silent snapshot of a small cast of characters progressively fraying into disillusionment and madness in their own ways, and it toes the line of alternatively being too sleepy or dour at times. Still, Rafelson keeps things chugging along with bursts of irreverent weirdness (a ramshackle train station pit band performance; a bombastic 'Miss America' pageant in an abandoned stadium), as if channelling a hungover, bankrupt Federico Fellini. And, as we discover here, that's not a bad thing to be. If there were ever a case to be made regarding Jack Nicholson's versatility as a performer, his extraordinary work here would be Exhibit A. His buttoned-down, depressed David Staebler is a remarkably muted, human performance. Only Staebler's flourishes in lyrical storytelling, whether his artistically maudlin radio dramas, or his more prosaic ditty about a woman teaching a dolphin to satisfy her sexually, show the glimmers of cheekiness that would become vintage Nicholson. Bruce Dern - in many ways playing the typical 'Jack' part as the wired, hustler brother - proves the perfect foil; cocksure and charismatic, but with an endearing 'aww shucks' affability, Dern delineates his sliminess as an almost unconscious defence mechanism, and is far more compelling for it. Supporting them, Ellen Burstyn is ferociously powerful as Dern's manic girlfriend. If The King of Marvin Gardens is an overall study of different methods of denial, Burstyn's is the most chilling and riveting, as she steadily crumbles into fits of frenzy by her inability to cope with her aging, including an unbelievably shocking but perfectly orchestrated climactic meltdown. Finally, Julia Anne Robinson (tragically in her only major film role) is exceptionally warm and charismatic as Burstyn's surrogate daughter, cheerily making peace with her warped life, while beloved character actor Scatman Crothers steals scenes as a kindly mobster with just the right undercurrent of unflinching menace. If The King of Marvin Gardens has a moral in its Kerouacian, magnetically loopy tale of perennially thwarted sad sacks, it's actually an unexpectedly earnest ode to the importance of adventure, no matter how macabre. So, should Rafelson's film prove an inspiration to break through creative block (as with Nicholson's Staebler), or merely an entertaining and moving curiosity, it's a perfect illustration of gripping, oracular 70s cinema, and the decade's obstinate defiance of easy closure. So go ahead: pass go, collect $200, and land on Marvin Gardens - it's worth taking the Chance (ouch). -8/10

widsith-58602 Two brothers get together to re-evaluate their lives and dreams, but it soon become apparent that they have more differences than similarities, and perhaps would have been better off not hooking up at all.This is a movie that makes you work. There are no easy clichés to grab hold of. Nicholson shows that he can act the pants off most others, playing a sundied, self-examining radio host, a million miles from the 'Nicholsom' we're used to.Dern gives an astounding performance as perhaps one of the most obnoxious characters to ever grace the screen - a self-obsessed businessman and would-be millionaire, if he wasn't to busy taking drugs and abusing women.Ellen Bursten is utterly convincing and heartbreaking performance as one of his neglected hangers one, and just as one is thinking the film is burning itself out, steals the show with an memorable explosion of emotion.Julie Anne Robinson, the young of the two women hanging around Dern, is equally impressive. A promising actress with three films to her credit, she sadly died of smoke-inhalation during apartment fir at her home on Eugene, Oregon, 13 April 1975.It's Nicholson one ultimately remembers most from this film, even though he is really an observer thorough whose eyes we witness the self-destructive habits of the others.Really glad I saw this, happening upon it when browsing through a batch of 70's movies that cane into my possession. No car chases, gun fights or sex scenes (well, one brief one), but a rare ensemble performance, a real gem.

MartinHafer You would probably expect a film starring Jack Nicholson and Bruce Dern to be emotionally charged and rather exciting. Oddly, the film is the opposite. It's very, very slow and about as exciting as a documentary about cheese making--at least the first 75% of the film. Then, things heat up--but by then, most of the folks watching this film probably will have turned it off.The film begins with Nicholson playing David Staebler--a rather dull man who has a Public Radio sort of show in Philadelphia. Out of the blue, his brother, who he hasn't heard from in over a decade, contacts him and tells him to come Atlantic City for some 'big deal'. Once there, the older brother, Jason (Bruce Dern), tells him about some sort of casino that he's going to be running in Hawaii--but the details are very, very vague. Most of the time, however, instead of working on this deal, Jason just hangs out in a decrepit old hotel with two women--Sally (Ellen Burstyn) and Jessica (Julie Ann Robinson). As the film progresses, the deal seems more and more vague and Jason keeps making promises to David to get him to stay--all the while Sally's mood is incredibly unstable. What comes of all this, eventually, is a bit of a shocker--but not enough to make slogging through the first 75% of the film worth your time. It is interesting to see Nicholson play such a quiet and 'normal' person but other than that, there isn't much to recommend here.

ccthemovieman-1 "Bleak" might be the best word to describe this typically-low life early 1970s film. There were a number of these kind of grungy films made in that decade, and this is one another of them. It's also another example of a critics' favorite that bombed with the public. People generally do not want to see depressing stories like this, but Hollywood producers/directors will crank them out anyway to please their peers. How many films did that period did we see that were upbeat and took place in Atlantic City? Probably none. The city was a perfect setting dingy stories about losers.The movie does feature a good cast, is nicely understated and features a bunch of character stories, but I never really found out where it was going. It wound up being a slow piece about unappealing people. Can you say "disjointed?" Is it any wonder this film was another dud at the box office, despite the cast?SOME GOOD POINTS - It was refreshing to see Jack Nicholson playing against-type with the role of a introverted radio monologist. He didn't play too many introverts for a long time! Bruce Dern is interesting as always and if you want to see a "new" face, check out actress Julie Ann Robinson as "Jessica." This was her only role.