Once Upon a Time in Anarene, Texas
Peter Bogdonavich and The Last Picture Show By Matthew
What I’ve always appreciated about
the theater-going experience were always those small, fleeting moments. When the mind-numbing adverts and the trailers end and for a small moment the whole theater is dead silent and the room is pitch black. Bated breaths and anticipation is held in the gut of every warm body in those seats as they wait for light to shoot up on the screen. Obviously, this is probably a shared feeling across a majority of the hardcore moviegoer community, even as we find more difficult day by day with the ongoing pandemic and lackluster releases by studios who care only about tentpole franchises and intellectual properties. For those of us that live in or just outside of metropolitan cities, we are fortunate enough to have the independent theaters that cater to the needs of film fans seeking more of the classic, cult, or subversive works the medium has to offer. However, what if you live in one of those towns a hundred miles removed from all directions from any major city? There’s a lone rundown
theater on its last leg and the popcorn machine doesn’t even work. For one Peter Bogdanovich, this was a personal Hell.
The Last Picture Show follows
three teens coming-of-age in a nowhere, conservative Texas town that is slowly decaying, both culturally and economically. In this “one street and a traffic light” town of Anarene, boredom reigns supreme. Everyone in Picture Show comes off as exhausted and lethargic in their place in both the town and their lives. We zero in on a trio that would seem to strive easily in the high school atmosphere, two varsity football stars Sonny (Timothy Bottom) and Duane (Jeff Bridges) and the seemingly perfect girl next door, Jacy (Cybill Shepherd). Despite the surface level youthful smiles they put on for each other, their peers, their elders, and the whole town itself, each character hides 3
