Brewster McCloud (1970)
Directed by Robert Altman
Altman’s absurdist comedy is a deliberately awkward, abrasively reflexive product of its time. Bud Cort (one of Hollywood’s unlikeliest-ever leading men) stars as Brewster, a reclusive nebbish and possible murderer who’s building a pair of human-sized wings to fulfill his dreams of flight. Altman’s modus operandi is to throw everything he can think of at the wall, without caring what sticks. He’s out to offend and/or alienate everyone, with the script’s litany of un-PC slurs and a scattershot, Laugh-In style approach to montage. Whether the full effect is annoying or charming will be up to your specific sensibilities, but Brewster McCould remains an entirely singular work and a strange yet vivid time capsule, and features the ethereal big-screen debut of the one and only Shelley Duvall. Zach Clark (Dec 11, 4pm at MoMA‘s Altman retrospective)