You're a Big Boy Now (1966)

The most famous movie to look at the younger generation's disillusionment with the American way of life is "The Graduate", but Francis Ford Coppola's "You're a Big Boy Now" also offers some insight. The young protagonist is a character very much like Ben Braddock: born into an affluent family that plans for him to be a big success. But this young man actively seeks out a new life, and he befriends a go-go dancer...but that's not all.A lot of the humor is cutaway humor. In the end the movie isn't a masterpiece but has some funny stuff. It's sort of a cross between the zany comedies that dominated the '60s and a Woody Allen movie. One of the most interesting things is the soundtrack. The Lovin' Spoonful did the music, and it includes some songs - among them "Amy's Theme" - that I had heard but never knew whence they came.I recommend the movie. It's a perceptive look at the youth culture, and also at mid-'60s New York. We even get shots of movie theaters running noted movies of the era! It's really a movie that you gotta love. I bet that when "The Godfather" debuted, people were shocked that it was directed by the same man who directed "You're a Big Boy Now".And remember, wooden legs and aggressive chickens.

This movie was very boring and made really no kind of sense to me at all. It's about this ugly, gap-toothed, 19 year old guy who doesn't know much about girls and when he moves out on his own, he decides to see what girls are like. He walks around Times Square and ends up at a peep show. Elizabeth Hartman plays an actress who's also a go-go dancer in whom the ugly guy gets a crush on after watching her dance at a club one day. She decides to mess with his mind by inviting him to move in with her and gives him some what of a thrill that night(Don't worry nothing happens she just turns out the lights, kisses him and then dumps him the next day. I just knew she wouldn't go that far). She then begins to date the ugly guy's friend whom she eventually dumps as well. You can tell she's an insecure person who loves to mess with guy's minds and then dump them. At the end the ugly guy ends up getting together with this cross-eyed chick who's had a huge crush on him throughout the whole movie. Thank God Elizabeth Hartman is my favorite actress. Otherwise I would've stopped watching this movie about 20 mins after it started. It was a bore!!!

One of the great weird movies of the 60's. Anybody who loves movies of the 60's, and has missed this, has a monstrous gap in their viewing pleasure. The views of NY from that time period bring back all kinds of memories to me. There are brief pictures of Steeplechase Park and Coney Island. The cast consists of so many interesting actors/actresses: the tragic Elizabeth Hartman, the well-named Rip Torn, Tony Bill, Karen Black, Julie Harris. The person who didn't like this movie, will I guess he/she is just not into this cult classic. This movie was on my very short list of movies-I-MUST-see, and I thank goodness for IFC for showing it.

One of the few times when the late Elizabeth Hartman gets to play as somebody other than a frail, mousy girl. Since her Oscar Nominated performance in "A Patch of Blue," Hollywood always seemed to want her to play vulnerable, handicapped women, or vulnerable women of some sort. This time, she plays a bitchy, egotistical, man-hating actress/go-go dancer, who wins the heart of a young library clerk, played by Peter Kastner. The kind of character, who could probably be the inspiration for a riot grrrl band.Besides that, I'm a Native New Yorker, so I've got a natural attraction for movies filmed in New York City, and the rest of the tri-state area. Biff Rules!