Saw The Last Picture Show, a melancholy film about a small southern mining town. The protagonist, Sonny, is a high-school football player of no great skill or distinction. Inexplicably estranged from his family (due to "not getting along" whatever that may mean) he mostly lives out of a combination pool-hall/diner/movie theater strip all owned by the kindly father-figure Sam. The film is about the soap opera lives of small-town folks who have little to do besides watch movies and play bedroom hopscotch. In this town there are few opportunities for happiness and plenty of time to identify and reflect on missed ones.
The film depicts a sad situation with intimacy and immediacy. Sonny has reached the end high-school and the end of his planned life. Now what? He can join the army or go down in the mine. Also he can get married, if he feels that would improve matters. A life of hardship and nothing stretches in front of him. His best friend Duane starts off dating JC, the town beauty-queen, who is even more severely trapped, being female. She spends the film running into the arms of whoever seems like the best ticket out of town. She breaks up with Duane outside of the school Christmas dance. "Merry Christmas, son." says an onlooking chaperon.
The film is also very erotically charged. Many sex scenes and lingering looks, many accommodating relationships. Who does what with whom is the only interesting thing going on in town and therefore of central importance to the film. It's got the fascination of small-town gossip and, under that, its ugliness too and, under that, the sadness and humanity of people with no future. But in that humanity there is warmth that must be protected and clung to, even as the cold wind perpetually howls outdoors.
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