Review of Five Easy Pieces (1970) by Ray D — 05 Mar 2017

The kind of movie where a person wanders about aimlessly and acts like an idiot, all presented as an introspective think piece, Five Easy Pieces has a pervading sense of emptiness about it, and an inescapable feeling of pointlessness.

The acting is good, and there's some standout moments, notably Nicholson trying to order toast in a café and playing a piano on the back of a truck, but for the majority of it he mopes, argues, whines and treats the people close to him like utter garbage.

There's nothing to like about him, and the attempts to manipulate our emotions in his favour fail as a result. It's painfully overrated, religiously following the Terence Malick instruction manual on staring endlessly at things with nothing interesting to say about them.

Boring, frustrating and thoroughly unentertaining. Sorry Jack, but this one's a dud.