You're a Big Boy Now (1966)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

good back-story, and good acting

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

This film, sadly, has been lost in the forgetfulness of time. I happily found a copy of it on the Internet and just watched it, after waiting 47-years since my last viewing in 1966. It was a fresh and funny as that day I first saw it as a crazy, hormone-driven teen. As I watched it, I marveled on just how "ahead of its time" it actually was, and how many great films have stolen so many of its artistic riffs, so many of them redolent of the Swinging Sixties and all of the wild, drug-fueled looniness that characterized that brief period of time. I realized that without this seminal film, there probably wouldn't ever have been a "Graduate," or even a Dustin Hoffman. To see the great character actors who have gone on to spectacular careers in the many years since was especially thrilling to see, including Geraldine Page, Rip Torn, Tony Bill, Julie Harris (would there ever have been a "Thing" in The Men in Black without a "Miss Thing," curiously starring a much older Rip Torn?) and the always solid Karen Black in her first screen role. It's absolutely amazing how many of Coppola's early films have launched such stellar careers. But perhaps this wonderful film owes so much of its depth to the co-starring role portrayed by the luminous Elizabeth Hartman, who's twisted and soulful performance remains one for the ages. If you smoke pot or occasionally do "harder things" that have a propensity to expand the mind, this is suggested viewing in any case. This movie wonder is a perfectly hilarious, perfecting engaging, perfect little film. Catch it if you can.P.S.— I nearly forgot to give Honorable Mention to the superbly crafted soundtrack by the iconic 60's pop group, The Lovin' Spoonful. Long before it was fashionable for rock groups to create music for film, the Spoonful did it, and did it more than justice... it was perfect. I just downloaded the song, "Amy's Tune" ("Lonely"), and am enjoying it as I write this review... ah, for the halcyon daze of my youth.

I first saw this movie in a British seaside flea-pit - on the strength of just the title - when I was 13. It enchanted me so much, I traveled back there every night for the rest of the week, just to see it again and again.Despite being very much a "New York Movie", it's themes are universal and as a young lad of 13, I REALLY identified with the 19-year-old hero (Americans are less mature than we Europeans).At that time, I only knew F.F.C. as the director of "Finian's Rainbow" (a VERY different project) and of course, he had yet to do "American Graffiti" (ANOTHER of my Top Ten).I have this masterpiece on VHS and the soundtrack album (in mono) on vinyl and they STILL stand up today. I think people who dislike this movie are expecting another broad relationship comedy - but the comedy is very SUBTLE, obviously being lost on those who see it as just another "Young Man's Awakening" movie.But that aside, this is a charming, VERY Sixties look at teen-angst from the viewpoint of a central character who has JUST LEFT the bonds of home (so many feature ones who are still STUCK there). And as one who would shortly leave an English small town for life in London, at the HEIGHT of the "swinging" era ('67-'72) this movie was LITERALLY a life-changing experience for me.And few of my Top Ten movies can claim THAT.

I wrote the novel upon which this film was based, I worked on the various scripts with Francis, and I was present throughout the filming in New York. An amazing experience. Coppola had been working for a year with MGM writing scripts for them (he had got this job as a result of winning a nationwide literary competition) and had scripted Is Paris Burning? and Patton Lust For Glory, both of which Gore Vidal was supposed to be writing but Coppola travelled to Paris to help get scripts out of him. He had also written the screenplay of This Property Is Condemned, based on a Tennessee Williams short story, and (apart from the magnificent helicopter shot which starts the film) thought very little of it.For full details of the filming of this first real Coppola movie see my memoirs Dropping Names which is available from my website www.davidbenedictus.com Oh and by the way clips of Dementia 13 which Coppola filmed in a couple of weeks in Ireland (he mentioned to me some nudie films which he may or may not have directed but Dementia 13 is probably his first acknowledged work) are used several times throughout You're A Big Boy Now (I imagine he didn't have to pay copyright on them!) and they look powerful to me.A sad memory is that Elizabeth Hartman who plays the sexy man-hater with great precision and style was to have a serious nervous breakdown after the end of her marriage and threw herself out of a window to her death. She was some actress and you may have seen her in The group and A Patch Of Blue (opposite Sydney Poitier)

A coming of age film centering on a young man's longings and fantasies for his dream girl whom he sees in the New York Public Library's main branch. This comedy-drama is so spotty it is often infuriating but still worth seeing. The lead, Peter Kastner, is forgettable, but his father played by Rip Torn, head of incunabula (see the movie and find out what it is!) at the library, is hilarious; the fight scene with Julie Harris is marvelous. The opening scenes show the behind the scenes goings on at the great library and even where all the books are stored, which the public can't see. Karen Black did a fine and affecting job as Kastner's girlfriend. On the negative side is the lovely Elizabeth Hartman coming off her big success in "A Patch of Blue" with Sidney Poitier. She is supposed to be the cool and detached object of longing - but is as vapid and empty as any character could be, and in part this has to be the fault of the direction of Coppola. This is a significant problem with the film. Hartman was very tragically an apparent suicide in 1987. The movie does have enough in it warrant a viewing.