Customer Reviews

You're a Big Boy Now [VHS]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This film is long overdue for a DVD availability. To think that you can get "Full House" in boxed sets but not this little gem.

It's not a perfect film but it evokes the rhythm and atmosphere of the time. Forget Coppola, look at folks like Julie Harris, Rip Torn and Karen Black. Revel in the weirdness of sixties poetry, drama and interior decoration. Beyond all that, revel in the performance of Peter Kastner, at once likable and pathetic. He never seemed to garner the recognition he deserved; forever to wear the albatross of "The Ugliest Girl In Town" around his neck.

I just get a good feeling whenever I get the chance to see this movie or even think about it. Let me own it and relish each and every scene (and a commentary by Peter Kastner and others wouldn't hurt at this stage, either)

This was Francis Ford Coppola's thesis film at UCLA. It is a bit dated, but it also has a surreal quality to it that draws you in. By no means a masterpiece, it is still worth a look, and a must for Coppola fans.

I just want to say that "You're a Big Boy Now", is one of my all time favorite movies. Cheesy? Yes. Entertaining? Absolutely. I first watched it back in 1989 (I was 19 years old, Bernard's age) and in a way I related to Bernard. Growing up and moving into my own apartment and what not.

Bernard's mother (Geraldine Paige) reminds me so much of my mother. Over-nurturing, over protective and nosey (sorry Mom.)
The acting in this movie is absolutely wonderful. Even "Dog" (yes, that's the name of Bernard's
dog) did a good job in this film. This is a must see!

About 15 minutes into this quirky film I was ready to proclaim it a must see and to bill it as the best movie no one has seen or even heard about. After all it was Coppola's masters thesis for film school. It has Elizabeth Hartman successfully playing against type as a sexy (somewhat psycho) Greenwich Village ingénue. It has Peter Kastner, Rip Torn, Geraldine Page and Julie Harris playing characters as bizarre as those in "Harold and Maude" (it reminds you a lot of that film and may have inspired it). It has Karen Black doing a toned down version of the Rayette Dipesto character she would play in "Five Easy Pieces". It has a lively sound track by the Lovin' Spoonful. It even has Coppola cutting in extensive gruesome footage from his first film "Dementia 13".

Unfortunately by the halfway point of "You're a Big Boy Now" it runs out of steam and you begin to understand its obscurity. Coppola's script is the problem because the cast are generally excellent and you can tell they had a lot of fun making the film. Even minor cast members like Dolph Sweet do a good job and there are great little sequences like Kastner's after dark explorations of the New York City streets. But unlike "Herald and Maude", Coppola says nothing with this film; consequently it ends up as a classic case of the whole being considerably less than the sum of its parts.

This is not Coppola's best stuff but is worth checking out if you like Hartman, Harris, and Page.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

It is fabulous to finally see "You're a Big Boy Now" available in any format. This is a sweet, flawed, engaging, freshmen effort by a master crafstman. More importantly, it is one of the very few films that truly captures the essence of what it was like to be young and awkward in the mid-1960s (or anytime). It's a time capsule of a movie. It was evocative and real to me when I was young, and it's just as evocative and real to me now.

My one and only complaint is that this long-awaited DVD-R release is insufficient and doesn't do the film justice. "You're a Big Boy Now" is a movie that cries out for restoration of sound and picture and would really benefit from audio commentary and other bonus features that help illustrate its timeliness and the times in which it was released. And while this DVD-R has the best quality picture I've seen since before the days of VHS, it's still substandard. For instance, a comparison with a grainy bootleg copy shows that the image, while widescreen, is cropped on all four sides to the point of obscuring even some of the titles. The sound is very spotty and goes from too quiet to too loud, and the musical score by John Sebastian of the Loving Spoonful is tinny and somewhat grating.

Please, Warner Bros., give "You're a Big Boy Now" a proper release and restoration. You'll find that there are more people waiting for it than you would think.

"You're a Big Boy Now" (1966) certainly makes one appreciate Francis Ford Coppola even if you hated "The Godfathers" and thought "Apocalypse Now" NOT the best movie about Vietnam. It is an entertaining, at times hilarious comedy that makes one happy even to think of it. Besides the great performances by Geraldine Page (Oscar nominee), Peter Kastner, Michael Dunn, Karen Black and Rip Torn but most of all for the opportunity to allow Elizabeth Hartman break her type she perfected with an Academy Award nominated performance the year before in "A Patch of Blue" as a shy blind girl. It is true she later played characters that tapped into her nervousness (she jumped from a window at Western Psychiatric in 1978 in Pittsburgh where doctors say she hadn't taken her medication), but in "You're a Big Boy Now" she is perfect as sexpot "Barbara Darling." She was in enough good performances for us to always remember her and this film proved her range and versatility. I am so glad Warner Archive collection has finally put this film out on DVD. It is in many ways a momentous occasion. The Lovin' Spoonful performs on the soundtrack.

Lord! What a DOG this movie is! Peter Kastner has to be one of the worst non-actors I have ever seen. Geraldine Page was nominated for an Oscar for this!? Unbelievable! Julie Harris was embarrassing to watch and Elizabeth Hartman had zero sex appeal. $20.00 bucks down the drain! Oh well, live and learn.

If you were 16 in 1967, as I was, and yearning for love and independence in NY, as I was when I first saw "You're a Big Boy Now" when it opened, this film will resonate with you all over again, both for its coming-of-age plot, rife with all the mistakes a young man makes, and for its (today) nostalgic evocation of the NY scene of the mid- to late 60's. I can certainly understand the criticism of it from everyone else who wasn't around that age at that time or is looking at it from the perspective of a film critic today. Still, I am so happy it is now available on DVD from amazon. Totally believable performances by everyone in the cast.

This is available on DVD. Try a different search and you'll find it. Interestingly, Amazon is producing the DVD themselves, but still say here (and on my auto-reminder) that it isn't available. Please!

Sure, one can dissect this film the way a film-dissector dissects films. Throw those dissections away, though, and watch this film for the pure beauty of writing, acting, direction, score, cinematography, and genuine zaniness of ecclectica that ensues from the very opening scene til the last. I love this movie for everything that it offers and everything that a film-dissector says it could never offer. To me, it is a cult classic - it cannot be dissected like any other flick.

P.S. My favorite scene, other than all of them in general, is when Bernard sees Barbara Darling dance for the first time at the Go-Go club. It's as raw and real as life gets, or at least got at that time. Man alive, this movie gets 6 stars on a 5-star basis.