Sunday 1 May 2022

Tin Men (1987 Barry Levinson & scr)

"So he broke into your house, you hit him over the head with a gun and threw eggs and tomatoes at him?"
"Yeah. I would have thrown soup if I had any soup."

Funnily enough, set in the year our last film was made, 1963, in the writer's native Baltimore, telling of the war between aluminum siding salesmen Danny de Vito and Richard Dreyfuss, and the woman between them Barbara Hershey (who steals the film). Their sales methods are enjoyably despicable. Film holds up really well, is timeless, with a nice line in banal conversations. With John Mahoney, Seymour Cassel, JT Walsh, Jackie Gayle, Bruno Kirby. A good mix of old music and Fine Young Cannibals, photographed by Peter Sova. We particularly liked a montage of people in a bar, edited by Stu Linder.

Levinson wrote Avalon, Toys, Jimmy Hollywood, Man of the Year (Robin Williams), Diner, Liberty Heights (which sounds good); directed Rain Man and Good Morning Vietnam.

Love the touch that Dreyfuss has his eye on the next thing - not Cadillacs, but VW Beetles (though it's a slight shame that we see the same black one three times over).





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