Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982) User Reviews

A trip down memory lane about a trip down memory lane

[AlsExGal · 7/10 · 14 May 2016]

This is a set-bound independent film deals with a small assortment of characters who assemble at the small title store in a nowhere, dusty Texas town. Some work at the store, and some have moved out of town, but they are reuniting on the 20th anniversary of James Dean's death. It seems GIANT was filmed nearby 20 years earlier, and one of their own even appeared as an extra in the film. Some have moved on since then, others haven't. And some have changed completely. I won't go further into the developments, as learning who is who and what is what is part of the film's journey.

Robert Altman directed this, both on the stage and then on film, and it's more interesting than I expected. I've never been a fan of Sandy Dennis or Karen Black, and so I've never gone out of my way to see this again after I saw it the first time. I am, however, a fan of Robert Altman. Altman has always been known for his great rapport with his actresses, and that quality serves him and his cast admirably in this. These are interesting, fully-fleshed out women, and the voices are very genuine. Sandy Dennis plays a variation of her usual emotionally fragile screen persona, but Altman manages to rein in her histrionic tendencies. Karen Black is much better than usual, in an unusual, but subtle performance. Cher famously made her first serious foray into dramatic acting here, and she's tough and terrific. A young and fiery Kathy Bates is also memorable. Stage veteran Sudie Bond rounds out the main cast.

I saw this earlier this year on TCM, and for the first time years ago on Showtime. I am always fascinated about the places where movies are filmed on location, and Giant is my favorite of James Dean's movies. It is easy to see when watching the movie that it is based upon a play with one set, but that doesn't detract from it. Even though the introduction warned about flashbacks, I wasn't aware just how quickly the movie would go between the present day of the story and two decades before. That meant I was confused for the first 15 minutes or so, so don't be surprised if you are too. Then I realized what was happening and stopped worrying about what time frame it was at any given moment. Rewatching it, having an idea about what is going on, did make it more enjoyable for me. Recommended.

A Minor Exercise with Some Touching Moments

[jzappa · 7/10 · 2 May 2011]

The critique of social institutions and the portrayal of social outsiders remain Altman's central preoccupations in one of his more minor, less genuine attempts to revise our sense of American history by subverting some of its most trenchant myths. He's definitely better with a cast of hundreds, painting broad pictures of their complex interactions and entanglements by inventively using overlapping sound and dialogue, documentary realism and improvisation than he is with a cast of only a handful, each taking turns to ramble on with romantic soliloquys while the rest look on. This was made no clearer than in the embarrassing dud he shot next, Streamers. But there are some touching moments and themes in this obsessively nostalgic period piece about flashbacks, memories and disabused denial about the past, though they arguably have less to do with the substance on the screen than with Altman's tenacious devotion to the project. This first of numerous play adaptations by post-Hollywood Altman in the '80s comes to pass within a petite retail variety store in parched McCarthy, Texas, where a James Dean fan club reunites in 1975. The movie flits between then and 1955, the year Dean died, as the six members divulge skeletons in the cupboard hearkening back to then. The store is not far from where the great Dean film Giant was shot that year.

Those there are an unhinged Sandy Dennis, who leaped at the opportunity to be an extra when Giant was on location and who, nine months later, gave birth to a son she maintains is Dean's. She's taken the late bus. Then there's Cher, the acerbic five-and-dime waitress, who boasts relentlessly about the size of her breasts. She shows up late after lending a hand at the truck stop. And Karen Black, whose skeleton in the closet is the film's biggest culminating beat. The others who float in and out of the story are the newly well-heeled oil wife Kathy Bates, supplying ironic echoes of Liz Taylor in the epic movie playing such a pivotal role in the plot; crushingly meek woman Marta Heflin, now pregnant for the umpteenth time; Mark Patton, who prefers the fashion wear of the opposite sex, and Sudie Bond, who runs the joint. She opens the film by preparing for yet another day on the job, swatting flies and listening to gospel hymns on the radio, and also calls after young Jimmy Dean by name.

What Altman does with his ensemble is emphasize the script's relationship between the repression of women and male-dominated society's fear of sexual variation and gender uncertainty. The film's one male character to appear is implicitly, and sensitively, viewed as feminine, rather than the archetypally effeminate, woman-identified, and gay. The film also implies, in one of its most creative and penetrating story elements, that he's become something much more socially unacceptable for the reason that his social order had no place for a gay man.

The film is otherwise little if not distended with surprises that seem like they came from a very heartfelt writer's legal pad. As the women largely rotate, literally, going at each other in monologue prose, spoken in deep-Texas country drawl, we learn of emotionally demanding surgeries and the difficult realities of Dennis' eponymous son. Altman is extraordinarily efficient at keeping things moving, even when you're unsure whether you're watching something occurring in 1975 or 1955.

What makes this minor exercise noteworthy is that Altman shot it in 16 mm, and made do with merely 800 large on the whole project. Altman continually employs mirrors as a way to connect scenes like a dream between the present and the past. Manifestations in mirrors are part of the film's various frame compositions. The effect was seamlessly accomplished with a double set with two-way mirrors controlled by computerized lighting techniques. They become a window into 1955, allowing the characters to stare into the past, until that's what it all is, punctuated by hypnotically poignant shots of the decaying, abandoned five-and-dime store, while the song fades and the wind blows.

Has the electricity of a live performance, but the material is dire...

[moonspinner55 · 6/10 · 25 February 2007]

Members of a James Dean fan club reunite, with sad regrets and revealed truths for all. Ed Graczyk freely adapted his own play for the screen, and director Robert Altman (who also helmed the stage production) utilized the intentional phoniness of Garczyk's conception for a blurry-soft, dreamy effect. This interesting technique, coupled with fine key performances, makes the film worth-watching, though it does drag on too long and goes dangerously over-the-top whenever Kathy Bates is center-stage playing a bossy shrew. Sandy Dennis, as Dean-worshipper Mona, never quite deviated from her stammering performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"; once again, she affects a fluttery, unsure way of addressing people (she's sincere, yet her mind is cluttered up with extraneous thoughts--like a happy schizophrenic). Cher, playing a deflated sexpot, has the least convincing role, but she's game and has a wonderful moment imitating Dennis. Karen Black's mysterious Joanne is the catalyst behind all the sturm and drang; viewed today, the role is a wheeze, yet Black--wry and funny and tragic--is deeply in-tune with the material and does an excellent job. As a cinematic experience, "Jimmy Dean" is bereft of exhilarating highs, and the dreamy quality actually works against it in some instances (it feels like sensory deprivation). However, the film does have intense moments, always underlined by a sense of nostalgia, and it's that sweet feeling of melancholy that puts the movie across. **1/2 from ****

ONE OF THE VERY FEW MAGICAL MOVIES I HAVE SEEN

[caarot · 18 October 1999]

Although I saw this film many years ago, and I have seen it only once, the memories are still strong and I often think back to the feelings and thoughts it thrust upon me. Too few movies I have seen in my life stay with me very long...this on one that has.

I am not sure if this was written a stage play. The fact that it only has one location suggests that it was. The characters are complex and have so much depth that I am almost sure it was. They have not been written as characters to be placed over a story, they are the story.

I saw this movie late one night. Maybe I was tired. Maybe I was on a low. Maybe I was open to suggestion. Who knows? But. When I saw this movie, it stirred so many feelings within me, opened up my mind to so many thoughts and questioned so many things not only in my life but in the world in general that it could not have just passed without making it's mark.

If you like to watch movies that make you truly 'think' and which take you inside them...sometime to places you do not wish to go, then I whole heartedly recommend this one.

Take something away with you from this one and the world will be a better place....and you will be a better person.

Can one be nostalgic for something that one never knew?

[lee_eisenberg · 7/10 · 22 February 2013]

One of Robert Altman's lesser known movies looks at a group of James Dean disciples getting back together on the twentieth anniversary of Dean's death. "Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean" very much has the feeling of a play, as the whole thing takes place in one enclosed location (a Woolworth's five & dime store). I notice that a major theme is gender roles in the small Texas town where they live: the women are have always been forced to suppress their emotions, while the effeminate man is not accepted at all.

A common trait of Altman's movies is that many people are talking at once. That's the case here, but it's accentuated by the mirrors, which show what happened twenty years earlier while "Giant" was getting filmed not far from the town. I guess that in the end, the movie deals with nostalgia and how realistically we view the past. I was born long after the '50s, so even though I can watch the movies and listen to the music, I can never fully understand what it was like to experience these things for the first time. Does this count as authentic nostalgia?

I'd say that the movie is worth seeing. It's not Altman's best movie by any stretch, but I think that it had very good character development. Starring Sandy Dennis, Cher, Karen Black and Kathy Bates.

Stunning emotional drama and an American classic

[Vince-5 · 10/10 · 15 May 2001]

Character studies don't come any better than this offbeat look at small-town self-delusion. Robert Altman, best known for sweeping epics like Nashville, shows us that even on a smaller physical scale he is an original, highly inventive director. The low-budget production uses 16-millimeter photography and a single set to create a desolate, lonely atmosphere that mirrors the characters' hidden emotional turmoil. Although we only glimpse a tiny portion through the store window, we get a perfect feel for the dusty isolation of dying McCarthy, Texas. Five and Dime also contains hidden elements of symbolism that you may not notice at first but add another layer to the brilliance of the film.

Still, as with any play, it's all about the acting. And here, the acting is impeccable, especially that of top-billed stars Sandy Dennis, Cher, and Karen Black. Dennis is Mona, the stubbornly (and dangerously) romantic leader of the Disciples; Cher is Sissy, the blowsy sex symbol with a painful secret; and Black is Joanne, a mysterious "stranger" who cracks everyone's delusions. All three are terrific and should have received more recognition for their roles herein. Great support is provided by the Marta Heflin, the delightful Kathy Bates, and Sudie Bond as the shrill, bigoted owner of the Woolworth's.

This is not a film for everyone. There is no action, by the traditional definition. But this examination fantasy and reality, how life is and how we would like it to be, is a haunting exercise in acting, direction, and emotional involvement.

Unreality

[LuvSopr · 6/10 · 21 November 2015]

Come Back to the 5 and Dime is a very interesting film. I first saw it 20 years ago on Encore or Showtime and parts of it stuck in my head (especially the truly haunting closing shots of a dusty, long-abandoned general store). I watched again a few months ago. Both times I was not quite sure how to react.

First, there's the surreal nature of a film that, unlike Altman's Three Women (a movie that was full of lies and supernatural undertones, yet had painfully realistic characters), has no strong tie to reality - not just in the absurdity of Sandy Dennis playing her teenage self (which Ed Gracyzk, who wrote the play, objected to), but in the basic characterizations. Everyone has a "turn."

Everyone has some moment where they have to face a "truth" or give a revelatory speech, or get one shout-cried at them. Even Kathy Bates, who goes through most of the film as unapologetic and bumptious, gets to face this when Marta Heflin (who makes her material a lot better than it should be) shames her for her decades of bullying. This falls flat, because you are expecting it from a mile away. Other "truths" emerge from Sandy Dennis, who savaged by many critics in spite of giving a decent enough performance (the flashbacks just would not have worked without her earnestness or her basic rapport with Sudie Bond and Mark Patton) - likely because by this time they had seen her giving this performance (Pauline Kael once dismissed it as "rabbity") for over 15 years. (around this time Dennis was better served by her very affecting handful of scenes in The Four Seasons), and Cher, whose acting career was launched by her work here. Cher gives a perfectly good performance, but it's never anything beyond a performance, and is a lot better when she's left to the role of the sardonic if good-natured frenemy, rather than having breast cancer, corrupting (??) Sandy Dennis' son, and so on.

Then there's the plot, which is compelling when dealing with Dennis' delusions and the struggles of Joe/Joanne, but is too clichéd to care about with most of the supporting characters, and is too silly to bother with when it turns into a special needs child thought to be James Dean's love child who later becomes a delinquent ruined by exposure to bad things, blah blah blah.

Once you get past the clumsiness of the play's mechanics and the silliness of its plot strands, you're left with the credible actors trying to piece together what they're given (see above), and the actors who really shine and work within the patchwork format. That's mostly Karen Black, who takes a sad old trope (the broken, miserable transgender) and gives the part some dignity and humor. Joanne may have scores to settle (more "truths"), but also wants to have a good time with her friends, like the old days. Her pushing and pushing of Cher to reveal the "truth" about the husband who is never coming home is one of the most dramatically potent faceoffs in the film, a film that teases this type of conflict but more often has actresses watching each other act. Sudie Bond is also very good in a very unsympathetic part, making you understand why the girls still stay around her, even though she is a deluded, passive-aggressive woman hiding bitterness and a dead bigot of a husband under jes' folks "plain talking."

In spite of my criticisms, and the creakiness of Ed Graczyck's work (if you get the DVD of this you can hear him at length about what a terrible experience doing the Broadway version was, how the vicious reviews crippled his writing for years, his issues with Altman, etc.), it's certainly a compelling movie to watch. Altman feels alive and present in scenes big and small, not in the somewhat mean-spirited, greatest-hits way that makes it difficult to sit through films like A Wedding. The cast does well at making a meal of what they see (or taste) on the page. The visuals are very effective - you never feel like you're looking at a set. And, like I said before, the closing credits are a thing of beauty.

It's something that shouldn't work at all, but somehow does.

Excellent - Wonderful - Fabulous

[Poochie · 10/10 · 29 November 1998]

I LOVE THIS MOVIE. Every actor is perfect. Karen Black totally rules, though. There isn't a thing about this film I would change. I watch it over and over and never tire of it. It's like an old friend.

Robert Altman brings on the play

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 19 May 2015]

The Disciples of James Dean is an all-female fan club planning to meet on the 20th anniversary of the actor's death at the Woolworth's five-and-dime store. The movie flashes back to the stormy night when James Dean was filming Giant some 62 mile away. Juanita is the religious store owner. Sissy (Cher) is there. Club members brash Stella Mae (Kathy Bates) and mousy Edna Louise show up. Mona (Sandy Dennis) is hiding a secret about her son Jimmy Dean who she claims to be James Dean's son. Joe was the only man in the group and had a sex change since then arriving as Joanne (Karen Black) driving a Porsche.

Director Robert Altman has woven a dreamy tale from the Ed Graczyk play. I do have a couple of problems with this. It's hard to be convincing for the same actress to play the same character 20 years apart. Other than the weather and Joe/Joanne, the flashbacks don't always stand out enough. Sandy Dennis' performance is compelling but the dialog feels unreal. Altman may not be taking full advantage of the movie medium making this feel very much like an unreal play outside of time. Also the reveal has no shock value since it is hinted at throughout the movie. Nevertheless the acting is superb and the movie works.

A good film with interesting characters

[chevy_malibu97 · 10/10 · 21 December 2003]

I love Robert Altman films. Why? Because they always tell real human stories. This is no exception. The cast is excellent. Especially Sandy Dennis and Cher. The story of three girls and a friend who reunite in their small town . With Sandy Dennis recollection of how things were being quite different from the other girls. It is excellent. It is soft and sad in a way. The ending, with the same location 10 years after looking old and forgotten. Which holds true for any place at a given time. I wish I could find it on video or D.V.D. One of Robert Altman's best.

James Dean and the women

[Chase_Witherspoon · 7/10 · 4 June 2011]

A group of James Dean fanatics meet at the Five and Dime soda bar for their twenty year reunion where they trade stories about their memories of Dean's brief appearance in their town while filming the movie "Giant" when they were in high school. Filmed Broadway play features each of the characters coming in and out of focus as they confront one another's imagined lives and gradually begin to reveal painful secrets that have been concealed.

Impressive acting, in particular the neurotic characterisation of Sandy Dennis, showcasing her considerable talent as the group's spiritual leader whose son may or may not be the legendary Dean's progeny. Cher is also surprisingly good as the scorned waitress (in her first solo role sans Sonny Bono), while Black is typically bold and at odds with Dennis' almost child-like fixation.

A loose narrative is juxtaposed by a series of flashbacks, while frequent camera angle interchanges depict character reactions as the imbibing becomes the serum from which uncomfortable truths emerge. Might seem claustrophobic to some viewers, it's an immersive experience not without momentum issues, but possessing some superb performances. Dennis' expressive yet melancholy character is a highlight and another reminder of the void she left with her untimely passing in the early nineties.

Many hidden or not so hidden messages

[sproe · 10/10 · 5 June 2005]

I see something different every time I see this movie. What starts out seeming to be a very simplistic movie about James Dean fans is really more about what we believe in and how difficult it sometimes is to get beyond "false fronts".

Cher is excellent and the rest of the cast do a credible job of allowing us to see different viewpoints through different characters. Marta Heflin as Edna Louise probably has the most to offer in the way of "the moral to the story". Sudie Bond as Juanita has some of the best lines delivered in an excellent "why me" voice.

Things are not the way they seem in any of the characters lives with one exception.

Don't just watch this movie once. Watch it again and again and pick up something more each time.

A few dimes short of being a real good one

[videorama-759-859391 · 7/10 · 20 May 2015]

Almost making this head to head with Streamers, this is pure Altman again. This is also a one set movie, adapted from a stage play. Here we have a score of fine performers. If seeing Streamers, this might seem a little disappointing where the story really has it's moments, but there's ones, that lack substance, or really just didn't having an impact on me. The score of performers are great, especially Kathy Bates before her Misery days. If not having seen the play, the story revolves around a score of women, avid James Dean fans (such avid fans it's scary) who have gathered for a twenty years anniversary, to mark the death of the young legendary star, involved in the fatal car crash out of Salinas. To me, their devotion sounding exaggerated, or in a plainer context, it's hard to believe, they could get so emotional, through the movie, at that loss. It's basically a conversation movie, that does cut back and forth to earlier days, like the arrival of the Giant stars, and how one of them was an extra (Sandy Dennis), or "Was she really?", it questions us to believe. The mystery stranger element is great. Could it be the young lad friend of theirs, who's come back as a woman (Karen Black). Probably. An eerie thought. There's a few stage play movies I like. Only this, I like a little bit less. It's frankly a woman's film. I guess the best bit was the excitement around James Dean's arrival. It's the performances that sell the film. Incidentally there's another familiar film, I just judged by the preview called James Dean. More so, what I like about the film is the title. The film just didn't deliver as it should have.

Not a 5 & Dime worth visiting

[Jeremy_Urquhart · 5/10 · 29 April 2023]

Full disclosure: I don't think I would've touched Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean with a 10-foot-pole unless I'd be asked to write about Robert Altman films. And this is one of his highest-rated, even sneaking into the top 10 highest-rated on IMDb. But I really didn't like it very much, and I don't know, maybe it even started with that dreadful title. "Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean." Seriously? So it's the name of the play this film's based on, but it's a bad name for a play and it's a bad name for a film.

It centers on a group of women who have a James Dean fan club, and they reunite on the 20th anniversary of his passing. I think there are some interesting things here to do with the topic of celebrity, and the way famous people are easy to love and worship. That's one part that was at least a little engaging, and I do think a "reveal" (not really a plot twist) around the halfway point was interesting, and certainly led to the second half being a little more engaging than the first.

But there are still so many things here I don't really like, and it's just overall not my kind of movie at all. It's all stagey, there's some really bad over-acting (even by "theatrical" standards), some wacky zooms on Altman's part, and a lot of it I just found kind of dull. For the themes it tackles, and for at least one or two characters, it held some value, but it's also really not my thing.

Compelling, memorable film

[McGonigle · 10 February 2003]

I remember when this film came out... I was an Altman fan then but I could never convince any of my friends to go see this with me (I was in high school at the time). Twenty years later I finally catch it on Bravo, and found it well worth the wait (and boy am I glad I popped a tape in to record it).

The acting in this film is superb, as is the direction (as you'd expect). Altman has taken a stage play that takes place on a single set and brought it to the screen in a way that manages to preserve the theatrical ideosyncracies (e.g., the actresses don't change their appearance, or even their outfits in some cases, in flashbacks to twenty years earlier) while still being masterfully "cinematic" in the way Altman composes his images.

If anything, the Achilles' heel of this movie is its script, which appears to be taken verbatim from the original stage play. There were times, especially towards the beginning of the movie, when it seemed somewhat awkward, but in a way that probably wouldn't seem as out-of-place in a play. I guess that's why they call it "stagy". But still, it's a minor complaint, and the great acting and compelling story more than make up for it. Overall I give this movie an 8/10.

I really miss Woolworths!

[adamjohns-42575 · 6/10 · 28 June 2020]

It was difficult to understand which time frame they were in to start with as they flashed back and forth so quickly and it was even more difficult to understand what they were saying as they screamed and shouted like a group of banshees! But if you can get passed that bit, this film is actually quite charming. An interesting tale and covering some controversial topics for the year it was released.

They all give great performances even if they are just slightly polished versions of them self and not particularly nice characters.

I have always loved films that looked back nostalgically. It was great to see an old skool Woolies and to have a look back at the effect James Dean had, along with the attitudes of those times.

A Great Film! Not on DVD!

[JHHPRO · 10/10 · 20 December 2004]

"Come Back To The Five And Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean" (1982) Is simply one of the greatest American films ever made! Now that is just my opinion! I've found that people either really love this film or they really hate it! I think people who hate it actually, don't understand it. It's not an average "Hollywood" movie! Director, Robert Altman did many things visually that had never been done to tell a story on film. The actors were allowed to deliver monologues in one take without several cuts or done in voice-over as a flashback is seen. I won't go into the story of the film. However, I would like to go into why the film is not on DVD (and VHS has become extinct) the truth is I can't figure out a reason. The film marks future Oscar winner (1987 - "Moonstruck") Cher's first important dramatic role (Cher includes a clip from it on the film montage portion of her concert) Launched future Oscar winner (1990 - "Misery") Kathy Bates' film career. Featured standout performances from Oscar winner Sandy Dennis (1966 - "Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf") and Oscar nominee Karen Black (1970 - "Five Easy Pieces") Plus a talented and outstanding supporting cast Directed by the incomparable Robert Altman! The film was produced by Viacom who now owns Paramount! Why is this film sitting in a vault? Only to be removed for an annual showing on the Bravo Network! Even if Paramount just puts the movie on disc without any extras (which is what they do with most of their titles) there are enough people who know of this film that will purchase it. Especially at a low price under $20 (again, like most Paramount titles) All I can say is that there is much more from keeping this title from being released than I can even guess! My hope is that one day all issues will be resolved and we will have this beautiful film preserved on DVD for all to enjoy! All of us who love it that it!

A masterpiece

[MOscarbradley · 10/10 · 20 May 2017]

There's magic in the mirror, literally in the case of Robert Altman's "Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean", as a dime store mirror separates 1955 from 1975. As a flashback device this is as close to perfection as you are likely to get. Ed Graczyk adapted his own play, which isn't particularly subtle or profound, (it's sub-Tennessee Williams and sub-William Inge), but which, like the cheap music of the McGuire Sisters that radiates from the jukebox and the radio, still delivers quite an emotional wallop. Of course, taking James Dean as the iconic off-screen character whose life and death affects the lives of the on-screen characters is a major theatrical coup in itself. Few people in the history of the movies has had such an impact.

Altman never leaves the interior of the store, pointing up the theatricality of the piece and his small cast are superb. It's set on the anniversary of Dean's death as the members of his small-town fan club gather in the 5 & Dime of the title to remember him and celebrate the birth of his supposed son, an apparent mentally challenged boy, never seen. He's one of the two male characters in the film; the other is Joe, the effeminate boy who worked in the store in 1955 and who we see only in the flashbacks.

The central characters are Mona, (a superb Sandy Dennis), the mother of the boy she has named after his famous father; Cissy, (a never better Cher), and Joanne, (a magnificent Karen Black), the beautifully turned out stranger who descends on the celebrations and is the catalyst for all that happens. You don't have to be a top detective to figure out the punchlines long before they happen but that doesn't spoil the fun. This movie is proof that a great director can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear; indeed that it's possible to make a masterpiece from material that is basically second-rate.

One of the great 20th century classic dramas.

[diane-34 · 10/10 · 10 July 2011]

Diane and I were lucky enough to watch this quite extraordinary movie last night on TV. She says we saw it when it was first released but my poor memory does not recall it; I blame it on youth because last night I was completely absorbed in this modern classic and I can only think all those years ago I was too young to appreciate what was happening in the Five an' Dime.

As I watched this drama, my mind kept thinking of the great 20th century classics, particularly O'Neil's, Iceman Cometh. I kept thinking of Hickey and how he wanted the assembled bar patrons and owner, to leave the bar and explore the neighbourhood. He was the catalyst of undraping; how people, again in a very enclosed space, were gradually unmasked or undraped as the film works itself out.

This film is a true American classic and I will return to it frequently; The Last Picture Show comes to mind also. These stories, particularly about dusty, dying small towns provide a never ending basket of scenarios for the skilled writer and I can but denigrate myself for overlooking this modern masterpiece.

An acting lesson

[Caalong · 9/10 · 11 January 2006]

Robert Altman has always been able to direct his actors to deliver the very best they are capable of and this is the most obvious example. Sandy Dennis' and Cher's characters have the better written parts and the actresses shine in their roles. The best performance, however, is delivered by Karen Black. The underlying bitterness her of character slowly emerges as the story unfolds, not an easy thing for an actor to do.

While this is essentially a filmed play, it is a treat for all of who enjoy intimate cinema experiences, fine acting and good writing. Seek it out!

Painfully Annoying

[flackjacket · 1/10 · 24 February 2014]

I'm totally amazed at the number of reviews raving about this film. Almost all of them express the opposite of what I was unfortunate enough to watch. This film is painful, boring, confusing, confined and lacks any definable plot or purpose.

A synopsis of the film is this: stick a bunch of deranged and sickly looking women in one stage set, have them drone on about enigmatic themes with an occasional off-topic line that makes them seem like escaped mental patients. Good times huh? But wait there's more. Add in some visions, delusions of a bloody faced kid appearing in windows and reflections.

It's one of those films that you keep wondering if it will ever make any sense, but it never does. I guess some people see that as artsy or great film making. I see it as annoying and at times unbearable. Showing this film at Gitmo would be more torturous than water-boarding.

1 out of 10, because -25 isn't an option.

Sincerely

[blanche-2 · 8/10 · 20 February 2016]

Robert Altman's stunning piece of Americana, Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, was originally a Broadway play starring all the people you see in the film, in the same roles.

The story concerns a small Texas town where the James Dean Disciples are having a 20-year reunion on September 30, 1975, to commemorate the death of the icon on the same date in 1955. They are meeting, as they did before, in the Five and Dime run by the fundamentalist Christian Juanita (Sudie Bond), and at one time, with her husband Sidney, now deceased.

Each woman has a story to tell. The most fervent, devoted, and living in cloud cuckoo-land is Mona (Sandy Dennis), who went to Marfa when Giant was filming, was chosen not only as an extra but was anointed to have James Dean's only son nine months after the filming, also named Jimmy Dean.

Sissy (Cher) is the sex bomb always bragging about her breasts.

Sissy, Mona, and Juanita live in McCarthy still; the other members come in for the reunion: Stella (Kathy Bates) who married an oil baron, Edna Louise (Marta Heflin) who is married and expecting her seventh child; and Joanne, whom no one can quite place.

Mona, Sissy, Juanita, and Joanne all have secrets that will emerge during this sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, sometimes sad reunion. And as one person finds out, part of what she's been hiding is no secret.

Altman expertly tells the story using mirrors, reflecting back to happenings in 1955 and coming back to 1975.

The ensemble acting is superb, with the Dennis having the major role, followed by Cher and Black -- all three are marvelous, but the smaller roles are excellent as well.

The beginning is a loud and confusing; there's a theatricality about it that sometimes doesn't translate to film, and it's more obvious at the start.

This play was the darling of regional theaters for years - you can't get much better than an all-woman cast of six. It was done all over the country, and I assume is still being done.

This is a story about the strong fantasy a magnetic, frozen in time film personality can give us, about illusion, delusion, rejection, false fronts, and survival. All wrapped up in a group who met at the local Five and Dime to honor James Dean, wore red jackets, and pretended they were the McGuire Sisters.

Highly recommended.

Great favorite movie!

[rossier-1 · 10/10 · 3 February 2005]

I have watched this movie many times and think it deserves to be somewhat of a cult hit. Altman does a great job with the transitions, and the cast members are perfect for their parts. There are many memorable lines and scenes. The use of mirrors for many of the flashbacks is inspirational. Cher is at the top of her acting form, as is Karen Black and Sudie Barnes. I think the Five and Dime set is well done, as are the costumes. Kathy Bates makes one of her first acting appearances and does a great job of playing Stella Mae. I have purchased this movie twice as a tape and wish it would be reissued as a DVD. I think it could have a strong revival if it was!

What a terrific movie!

[Jared X · 10/10 · 20 October 1998]

This film is utterly fascinating, and I cannot recommend it enough. Sandy Dennis, Cher and Sudie Bond give tour de force performances... Deceiving to the eye, yet wonderful to behold. Superficially, the film explores our cultural romance with young celebrity. Underneath, it wrestles with issues of ego, identity, progeny, geographic and emotional isolation, and above all denial. Perfectly complemented by 'night Mother.