Between the Lines (1977) User Reviews

Between the Lines

[Oliver-50 · 7/10 · 16 May 2005]

I had never heard of this movie until about two months ago when I was looking up actor John Heard. I had just watched 'Cutter's Way (1981)' and was extremely impressed by his performance having previously only recognized him as the dad in 'Home Alone.' Not only does 'Between the Lines' have John Heard delivering another excellent performance but it also has a terrific ensemble cast of some great actors before they gained popularity; notably Jeff Goldblum, Linsay Crouse, and Marilu Henner. 'Between the Lines' is set up very much the same way as Robert Altman's 'Nashville' with the plot (what little there is) taking a backseat to a picturesque look at a time period and delightful characters. In a nutshell the film is about an independent newspaper group who is about to be bought out by a large company; but more so it's about the relationships between all these people. An absolute breeze to watch because the actors are having so much fun. There are many random funny moments; including an absurd scene where an abstract artist comes into the office and starts wrecking the place referring to each action as art, but the movie also has a great deal to say. A charming time capsule for the late 70's and also for the displaying the talents of the young actors.

***1/2 out of ****

Disjointed comedy with some nice scenes

[IndustriousAngel · 6/10 · 16 November 2016]

"Between the Lines" works far better as a document of its time than as a comedy or drama. The interactions between the characters are what's best here, while the actual "plot" gets lost somewhere between maybe too many characters and too many side plots which do nothing but make the whole thing feel a bit disjointed. It's characteristic of the movie that the funniest scene (about a wannabe conceptual artist) comes out of nowhere and leads to nothing, a complete non sequitur. You might think that in a story about a newspaper there would be ample opportunity for a good plot, but very little of this potential is actually used.

Recommended for the nice performances and overall atmosphere, which I liked, but don't expect anything particularly gripping or hilarious.

Jeff Goldblum!

[jonathan-577 · 7/10 · 25 January 2009]

They don't make em like this any more - a low-budget commercial character comedy about the dissolution of an underground newspaper. Yes, it is pretty disappointing that the newsroom milieu gets largely shunted aside to make room for the romantic vagaries, even if these are fairly amusing and insightful in and of themselves. And at this late date nobody in the world needs this much Southside Johnny. But - with all due respect to Silver who really handles the ensemble quite brilliantly - if there's an auteur on hand, it's the casting director, corraling wall-to-wall unknowns who aren't going to stay that way for long: John Heard, Lindsay Crouse, Marilu Henner, Bruno Kirby, and topping them all Jeff Goldblum, whose music-reviewing shyster may actually be more compelling than his human fly (he was tutored by Robert Christgau himself). By the end everyone has fallen victim to their own worst failings; they've overcome nothing, and it's pretty moving how life just goes on anyway.

I have a vague memory of . . .

[inspectors71 · 6/10 · 6 February 2020]

Between the Lines, and it's pleasant. BtL is one of those ensemble, renegade, rage-against-the-machine flicks that have always been with us, but were completely at home in Post-Watergate Land.

All I remember is that I enjoyed the actors (and if you look at the cast, it's an A-Team of talent), that Lindsey Crouse was really cute, and Jeff Goldblum insults some corporate suit or sell-out or whatever with "You pernicious eel-sh**!"

You can tell that Between the Lines didn't make much of a splash because--not counting mine--when I wrote this review, there were nine others.

I saw the movie, I think, on HBO in something like 1978 or 1979, right about the time FM came out. FM was another ensemble, renegade ratm flick, but with great music, and it was really dumb.

I don't remember Between the Lines being stupid. Unfortunately, I just watched it again on TUBI, and, although the movie isn't dumb, it's bland and predictable, an WKRP in Cinncinati kind of mish-mash of actors who have gotten old and, for the guys, bald.

I looked up Lindsey Crouse, and she has aged well. I think the last time I saw her on anything was Law and Order: SVU back in 2000. Jeff Goldblum looks like Jeff Goldblum, only with a shock of white hair. Steven Elliot did something somewhere that got him "canceled." If I'm wrong, I apologize.

John Heard died. The Venus Flytrap character was Joe Morton, and you'll remember him as the black scientist/voice of reason in Eureka. Michael J. Pollard? Passed away? Bruno Kirby? Don't know. Gwen Welles?

As you can see, Between the Lines was oozing with talent, the sort of movie that puts some oomph in an actor's resume.

I still like the movie. It's on TUBI. TUBI's free. You can afford to blow 100 minutes on a snapshot of what raging against the machine looked like in 1977.

Keeping independent journalism independent, and the vultures away.

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 25 January 2022]

A small independent Boston paper has a staff of young eccentrics, hopeful journalists who want to keep what they do free and away from the corporations who would manipulate everything they print and the type of advertising that the paper utilizes. This has a cast of rising young actors including Jeff Goldblum, John Heard, Lindsay Crouse, Bruno Kirby, Jill Eikenberry and veteran actor Michael J Pollard, stealing every moment he's on screen as the newspaper street hawker who can get a laugh just by smirking. When they learn from their somewhat Papa's, nervous boss, that there's a deal going through to sell the paper to one of those big corporations, they are not too happy, and they have to come together to decide how they are going to deal with this horrible bit of news.

An excellent script and direction by Joan Micklin Silver gives us a glimpse into life behind the scenes of these big city Independents, perhaps a type of Journalism long gone that focused on integrity, real freedom of the press and a point of view that covered many different topics and methods. This is certainly quite liberal and its storytelling, and the various characters interact an amusing ways even if they don't always get along or agree. It's interesting that for a film directed by a woman, there seems to only be one female reporter on the staff, with other women working for the paper doing basic office duties. There's a little bit of a romantic issue between two of the staff members, one who's constantly depressed and the girlfriend who has to put up with his mood swings.

Goldblum is the gregarious, ambitious one, and Kirby is an awkward young hopeful whose attempts to be as important as the debtor and members of the paper off and gets him laughed at. But when he gets into trouble while doing the big story, they come to his defense, and when push comes to shove as the big shoe drops on these little sneakers, they decide to deal with it in a way that suits their integrity, not guarantees them a paycheck. There's a hysterical ending that is a genuine belly laugh for how they deal with the big corporation representative, particularly how one of them handles it that leaves the representative silent and the audience applauding.

Between the Lines

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 20 April 2023]

The twenty-something staff of the erstwhile quite radical newspaper "Mainline" are struggling to keep their work relevant as the 1970s give way to the 1980s. I don't know if anyone remembers a television drama called the "Paper Chase" (1973) but a lot of the style and characterisations of that film are reminiscent here. Young people trying to make their own way, defiantly trying to hold on to values and commitments that may be largely on the wain. The thing with this, for me anyway, was I found them all rather shallow and selfish. The combination of their working and social lives are presented in a fashion that is very, very, verbose. Why use one word when you can use eight? As the story drifts along, I felt less and less interested in the characters and their semi-comic antics and started to notice silly continuity errors - that wouldn't ordinarily matter - and to focus more on the tangential aspects of the film - the big collars, bell-bottom jeans - all the things I used to remember from "Starsky and Hutch". Maybe the fact that I'm not an American means that this Bostonian story of intellectual maturity and liberating camaraderie doesn't resonate in the same way - because I found this all rather dull. Will their newspaper be subsumed into a bigger, commercial, enterprise? Well at the start I hoped not, but by the middle I was indifferent.

Boston Youths Coming of Age (Utes in NY) - Between the Lines

[arthur_tafero · 6/10 · 11 August 2018]

You know what happens when you bite into unripe fruit. It is not sweet or juicy; but it is a bit sour. The same is true for this film. Most of the actors in this ensemble went on to much better roles later in their careers. But not the director or writer. That is because several of these actors had talent. But at the stage most of these actors were at when this film was made, most of them were still unpolished, unripe fruit. Goldblum is good. Heard is interesting, but Crouse was still very raw; and would not peak until House of Games. Worth viewing only to see the development of these kid actors at a very early stage. An interesting side note for this film is the story of Bruno Kirby. He had a very good role in Godfather 2, which was a good three years before this piece of fluff was made. He actually looks younger in this film. Marylou Henner went on to do Taxi in 1978, and she was much sexier and funnier by that time. Sometimes, it takes time for fruit to ripen.

Wonderful Comedy on Ideals & Love & Writing

[shark-43 · 9/10 · 31 August 2001]

This is a movie very much of it's time. The hippie underground newspaper is in financial trouble and might be bought by a big time publisher. The in-fighting, bickering, jealousies and bed hopping by the young, idealistic staff make up the main, simple plot of the film but the cast and the sharp script make it a pleasure to watch. The film is CHOCK FULL of some of the best, young American actors doing some of their earliest film work: Jeff Goldblum is hystercial as the constantly stoned music critic who is always dead broke, Bruno Kirby (pre-Godfather II, When Harry Met Sally) is almost unrecognizable, pre- L.A. Law Jill Eikenberry, Lindsay Crouse, Joe Morton (Terminator II, Lone Star, City of Hope), a very young pre-TAXI Marilu Henner as a stripper and TV's 7th Heaven, Stephen Collins who plays a real jerk in the film. In fact, there is a scene on a park bench between John Heard and Stephen Collins as two rival writers that is one of the best things I have ever seen about petty jealousy between scribes. Terrific fun.

Not quite Altman

[jellopuke · 7/10 · 23 May 2023]

The lives and loves of a small Boston newspaper. You have the idealists, the wannabe authors, the photographers, the rock journalists, the editor, the secretary, etc etc. All working and hooking up while facing the possibility that the paper is going to be sold to a big corporation and ruin the counter culture nature of it all.

This is one of those ensemble movies that follows different people for a while then goes onto someone else. It's not nearly as good as Altman but still a nice movie about people. Sure a lot of them are jerks, but you do get a sense of who they are during the run time. Worth seeing for young Goldblum too!

EARLY CHILL

[mmthos · 5/10 · 12 March 2022]

Standard ensemble dramedy about 60's "youth quake" hippies running a radical paper, trying to maintain their anti-establishment values in the face of encroaching corporate greed, with all the joys and conflicts inherent in the enterprise. Good performance from lotsa youngish stars that continued to deliver for years, Jeff Goldblum even today.

Standard.

A Great Ensemble cast in a 1970's Period Piece from Joan Micklin Silver

[videodiscounters · 9/10 · 1 June 2009]

Joan Micklin Silver's ensemble masterpiece is watchable again and again! This is one of those rare films for which we can name 10 cast members. It captures the fading press counterculture of the late 60's and 70's in a memorable way. If you see it more than a few times, you will enjoy blurting out lines of dialog right before they are spoken... i.e. "some say 'whither rock 'n roll?...not at my house--I don't have the room" from Jeff Goldblum.

I'll wait a year or two, then watch it again. It's a 'cult' movie--at least with some friends I know-- along the lines of "Head Over Heels" a.k.a. "Chilly Scenes of Winter" another gem from Joan Micklin Silver.

Bland and horribly uninteresting

[blott2319-1 · 2/10 · 24 September 2021]

Based on a very minor perusal of the Wikipedia page, it seems Between the Lines was appreciated in some capacity back in the 1970s because it gave a snapshot of the declining industry of independent/alternative newspapers. Perhaps I would like the movie more if that were what it was actually about. I could have summoned some mild amount of interest in a movie that focused on the corporate takeover of the little guy, and how that was going to potentially affect the authenticity of their reporting. Instead I got a long soap opera about the annoying people that work together at a newspaper. There's little in the film besides boring relationship drama among people with little personality, and then Jeff Goldblum acting as the wacky comic relief (who does nothing that is actually funny.) We don't even get a close look at any of the stories they want to write, we just see some minor work they are putting in between sleeping with their coworkers. Between the Lines bounces around from scene to scene with very little narrative direction, and I found myself completely disinterested. I'm sure someone might like this babbling aimless nonsense, but for me it was terribly dull.

Underrated when it came out, but prescient and influential to this day.

[johnolson184 · 8/10 · 16 August 2006]

This note perfect film really must be seen. It is one of the best ensemble pieces ever made.

Viewed as an exercise in character, is is a strong enough . As a comment on its times, it was accurate and prescient. It was once possible to have a newspaper, music, a life that was not co-opted by corporatism.

Some of weaknesses in our culture are manifested in the sell-out, the opportunist, the survivor, the careerist. The real politician who changes political parties out of expedience, even if it means laying down with the dogs, could have stepped out of this picture. The once progressive believer who becomes a lapdog of the powerful was portrayed here.

This movie was too smart and knowing for Hollywood.

Extremely boring film about self-centered men and the women who love them

[radbond · 1/10 · 8 December 2006]

Since I grew up in Boston and worked in Back Bay area at the time period of this film, I though it would be really interesting. Some of the scenes brought back memories but why try to set the film in the Back Bay in the opening shot and then move it to the Harvard Square area shortly afterward? This is, after all, about the staff of the Back Bay Mainliner. But the worst thing about this film is how self-centered Harry, Michael and Max are. The film just dies when they are spouting about their problems and trying to get another woman into the sack. The women in this film seem to be much more interesting, especially when they interact with each other. Too bad they weren't given more screen time.

A gem about street press

[evrunis · 8/10 · 14 October 2021]

Stumbled on this gem on you tube about the going's ons in a magazine office , a great cast and great direction make this a must watch movie esp for those that worked in the industry.

Film Class Without The Class

[rewolfsonlaw · 4/10 · 14 May 2023]

By 1977 the attention span of movie goers (and apparently directors) had been firmly supplanted by television. So, too, with soundtracking, editing and the phenomenon of the ensemble cast. I'm going to guess that the money to be made was as a test run for a television series, think Taxi, Cheers or Wings. This has the style but none of the substance. It apparently appeals to the not overly demanding public, those happy to see the up and coming of their time trying their chops on material equally without depth or challenge. By the same director, I thought Hester Street had its charms. This has none. Worth noting, it objectifies all the characters, but especially those cast as women. This one shouldn't have passed film class.

Of Its Time, but Worth Watching

[nigelgatherer · 8/10 · 8 October 2021]

At the time of writing, this movie is 45 years old, and the music, writing, characters and costumes are, naturally, very much of that period. However, one day someone will write something new which owes a lot to this style of film-making; they'll lovingly recreate the fashions, revive the music, expand it to a miniseries. I don't know, but I do know I enjoyed Between the Lines, and I'd love to see more of the same.

tries to be hip but is strictly squaresville

[firma_ment · 2/10 · 16 July 2022]

This was a pretty pathetic attempt to write about the goings-on at an alternative newspaper in the 1970s, with the various writers and other employees of the paper. It seems like it was written by a dull accountant who is trying to capture the hip energy of young newspaper writers in the 70s, but has no clue at all what it is really like to work on such a paper. As if Ward Cleaver attempted to write a movie about Lester Bangs. The characters are cardboard cutouts of various types: the tortured writer, the egotistical writer, the kooky rock writer, the nerdy kid trying to fit in and be an equal of the others, etc. Nothing interesting happens in the movie, and the characters are just irritating and tedious. Jeff Goldblum's character is especially ridiculous in its forced zaniness. It's also full of depressing 70s fashions and interiors, full of ugly colors, bell bottoms, and wide collars. From a sociological perspective, it is interesting looking at how men and women allegedly carried on relationships in those days, but seems as foreign now as the relationships of an extraterrestrial race.

Dullsville. Unfortunately subject matter alone is not enough.

[alexdeleonfilm · 2/10 · 16 January 2017]

Story of an underground newspaper in the sixties in Boston about to be taken over by big business. This review was originally written for the Korea Herald is Seoul in 1978 when the film first came out there:

A film I would like to direct attention away from is "Between The Lines" . This film by young female director Joan Micklin Silver is enough to stop the Women's Movement cold and send lady directors scurrying back to the kitchen. Verbose to the point of nausea this treatment of an inherently interesting subject -- the rise and co-option of an underground newspaper in the late sixties -- is so inept that it makes you wonder where she ever got the money to finance the film. The answer, of course, is, that Ms. Micklin had a fairly big hit a couple of years back, Hester Street, which was highly overrated but appealed to many, again because of the subject matter, the immigrant Jews of New York at the turn of the century. Unfortunately subject matter is not enough. In 'Between The Lines" all the men talk like college girls and all the girls talk like psychiatrists. The between-the-lines message seems to be that the only good male is a castrated male. But the main thing wrong with this film is that it is boring ... lifeless -- dull. Thumbs down. Avoid this one. We can only hope that Ms. Micklin will find a new trade as soon as possible. PS: Many years later. It might be worth checking out now (2017) just to see Jeff Goldblum in his next picture after The Fly!