#213: The Last Movie Star
Release Date: March 30th, 2018
Format: Streaming (Tubi)
Written by: Adam Rifkin
Directed by: Adam Rifkin
1.5 Stars
I’m sure somebody out there has made the argument that Adam Rifkin’s The Last Movie Star is some sort of meta masterpiece, that this low-budget indie is in fact a clever metaphor for its main character, faded movie star Vic Edwards.
To say The Last Movie Star is meta would be generous. I don’t think there is anything intentional about how poorly executed it is.
Vic is based on and played by Burt Reynolds, one year before his passing. Watching Burt in this is tough. He looks frail and stooped, but he’s still the best thing about this flick (for whatever that’s worth). The plot involves Vic traveling to Nashville to accept a Lifetime Achievement Award, only to find out when he arrives that it’s being awarded by a small group of cinephiles who run a film club inside a bar.
It’s hardly the prestige he was hoping for, but the grizzled old man hangs around in Nashville long enough to learn a few things from these young whippersnappers, including his driver and assistant for the weekend, a loudmouth named Lil (Ariel Winter).
Under a different filmmaker’s care this subject matter might lend itself to tenderness, but Rifkin mostly fumbles around in cliches and consistently overplays his hand. For example, Vic doesn’t just drink whiskey in the film, he gulps it (he’s 80-years-old mind you). Lil isn’t just poor or trashy, but she’s poor and trashy and on half a dozen prescription medications and drives a beat up ‘80s Buick and dates an abusive biker and has her ass hanging out of her shorts for half the movie. The male gaze in this movie is aggressive to the point of being creepy.
These are the characterizations you would expect to find in a student film from the ‘90s (this is Rifkin’s 18th writer/director film credit; his first was in 1989).
It’s too bad Reynolds couldn’t go out on a higher note. For what should have been a sentimental sendoff, it ends up just being a sad final credit for a man who once was the most famous movie star in the world.
Postscript: Rifkin models Vic Edwards almost entirely on Burt, except making him Jewish for some reason. I’m not sure if that’s supposed to be a joke or not. If it is, it falls flat. Has there ever been a less believable Jew than Burt Reynolds?
