Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986)

Sorry, this movie sucks

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

How did I get here? "The Talkings Heads" open this movie with their song "Once in a lifetime" in which alienation amongst familymembers is rampant. "Down and Out..." is a hilariously smart comedy by director and writer Paul Mazursky, who plays a cameo role in his own movie. Its probably his best work ever.Still as funny today as it was decades ago. You just gotta love Richard Dreyfuss and Bette Midlers acting out their midlife crisis.As actors they are both at the peaks of their carreer, but as movie characters they have hit rockbottom in their dreary daily lives. Everybody in this movie is living apart together. Along comes a bum played by Nick Nolte and then fireworks start going off. Lovers of dogs and Little Richard are in for a treat. But that's just to highlight 2 loveable characters out of many. All characters are portrayed as big stereotypes. But because everyones character is overdramatized this comedy works even better. "Down and Out...¨ is endearingly human and hilariously funny! It is a true gem of a comedy with lots of smart and witty refferals to human shortcomings. Wanna have a good laugh, lay back and enjoy this eighties flick!

Americanization of the 1932 French comedy "Boudu sauvé des eaux", based on the play by René Fauchois, is one of Paul Mazursky's most misguided ventures (although it was a big hit in 1986, a time when the words 'Beverly Hills' were a current catchphrase at the cinema). Wealthy, pampered, but highly dysfunctional denizens of Southern California take in a hobo who has tried to drown himself in their swimming pool. Upon moving in, the now-cleaned up bum/con-artist discovers he's more normal than his filthy-rich patrons. Paint-by-numbers filmmaking, done up in loud colors. Richard Dreyfuss, Nick Nolte and, particularly, Bette Midler do everything they can with meager material. *1/2 from ****

Funny to see how little attention "Down And Out" gets today - bare-bones DVD release, a paucity of IMDb reviews, a modest Wikipedia entry - given that less than 25 years ago this was one of the highest-grossing comedies of its day. What happened?The stamp of the 1980s may be part of the problem. A very '80s look and vibe surround this social satire, where a bum named Jerry (Nick Nolte) is rescued by hanger tycoon Dave Whiteman (Richard Dreyfuss) and put up in his fancy Beverly Hills estate. Jerry finds ways to ingratiate himself with everyone in the household, even the normally hostile Whiteman dog Matisse. Dave soon finds reason to curse his generosity.I'm in agreement with ratnazafu's earlier comment that this film's connection to its time is part of its charm, though its pastels-and-neon visual signature is not for everyone. The script by director Paul Mazursky and Leon Capetanos is fun and arrestingly non-formulaic, but rather underbaked in such matters as who Jerry really is and what the issues are with the Whitemans' distrait offspring. Most critically, there's a tonal problem at the center - Nolte's direly realistic acting manner clashes with the film's overall cheerful and lightweight spirit."There's something very threatening about you," Jerry is told early on by Dave's wife, Barbara (Bette Midler).Nolte famously prepared for the role by living for days as a vagrant (insert obvious Nolte joke here), and I think the experience made it hard for him to settle into a comedy about being homeless. His gruff, bleary manner is established early and never quite goes away, even as the script paints him in the role of a smooth-talking rascal.In one scene, we see Dave and some new homeless friends parody the famous "We Are The World" song in a drunkenly over-the-top, amusing manner. Nolte is in the center of the frame, but tries to get out of the shot by hiding his face behind a pole. I don't think he saw himself acting in a comedy, and for the most part, he isn't.Dreyfuss and Midler, on the other hand, have a lot of palpable fun, and their careers deservedly got huge boosts from their performances here. At times Dreyfuss seems to be channeling Jackie Gleason, but it works, especially as he develops Dave as a genuinely likable character frustrated by his new friend Jerry's refusal to join the rat race. Midler does well with a tougher part, a shopaholic narcissist. "That was the cherry on the cake of my day" she groans when Dave tells her he saw their son in a tutu.Jerry finally achieves his breakthrough with Barbara through sex, a device the film not only plays up with a silly orgasm scene but repeats with the Whitemans' maid and daughter. The latter ravishment proves a breaking point for Dave, who loses it in a big finale which throws up as much fireworks as it can in a way that points up the story's overall lack of nourishment.Mazursky movies have a unique quality, full of ideas and visual invention, diverting enough so that you don't particularly mind even when they don't go anywhere special. There's nothing dislikable about "Down And Out", unless maybe you are Nick Nolte, but nothing memorable, either.

One of the charms of Down and Out is it's "dated" quality. Paul Mazursky has a great talent for capturing an era in popular culture and some of his movies, such as Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice are incredible historical records of their times as well as durable entertainment. Down and Out jump-started Richard Dreyfuss' flagging career, as well as Bette Midler's as a movie actress and Little Richard as a popular singer. This is something modern audiences probably don't know, just a historical side note. Nick Nolte prepared for the part by actually living on the street and not bathing for a month. An actor who takes his parts seriously.Another fun quality of Mazursky's films is that he puts his friends and family into his movies. Don Muhich, the dog psychiatrist, was Paul's psychotherapist in the '70s and has that role in two other Mazursky movies (B&C&T&A and Blume in Love)