Jack Nicholson shines in the film that helped cement his reputation as one of the finest actors of his generation.
Comment
07/26/07
Five Easy Pieces (1970)
81
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:27
Fresh:22
Rotten:5
Average Rating:8.1/10
Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: FIVE EASY PIECES is one of the most notable collaborations between Jack Nicholson and director Bob Rafelson, with Nicholson in an outstanding performance as Bobby Dupea. In the film, Rafelson and... [More]
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, Susan Anspach, Sally Struthers
Director: Bob Rafelson
Reviews for Five Easy Pieces
Top CriticThe result is less a story and more a collection of incidents and character studies, all of which inform each other and extend our understanding of Nicholson's mode of survival: flight.
01/26/06
Top CriticIt hasn't aged as well as some of its 1970s counterparts, but it's still a heartbreaking film and a minor classic.
06/21/04
Five Easy Pieces (1970) is a moody character study of an alienated, misfit drifter. It tells the story of a rough-neck California oil rigger
01/01/00
We'd had a revelation. This was the direction American movies should take: Into idiosyncratic characters, into dialogue with an ear for the vulgar and the literate, into a plot free to surprise us about the characters, into an existential ending.
03/25/03
Top CriticRafelson is expert at supporting this movement, and the film proceeds from scene to scene with a quiet competent modernism that bespeaks quality, but that more often begs than provides expression.
05/21/03
Top CriticIt often seems endless in the possibilities of its human observation.
06/09/02
The film embraces proletarian chic but still gets its laughs by abusing waitresses.
07/26/07
A fascinating character study.
09/10/02
A key American film of its era, Bob Rafelson's moody, character-driven tale of an upper-middle class dropout established Jack Nicholson as the foremost actor of his generation in articulating the values of the new generation.
02/26/08
Bobby can be seen as spiritual descendant of Melville's scrivener Bartleby, preferring not to participate in a world to which he doesn't subscribe.
12/07/07
Critics praise the film's daring, lavishing it with undeserved attention even now, thirty years after it was released.
02/28/02
The film's nervewracking quality is consistent with its content. Nicholson's performance is a remarkably varied and daring exploration of a complex character, equally convincing in its manic and sober aspects.
07/26/07
Top CriticJust give the guy a piece of toast.
03/18/07
This episodic character study is one of the key American films of its era.
07/26/07
Top CriticNicholson at his angry, young man peak. Cynical, anti-authoritarian drama.
03/21/03
Hold that sandwich! A film representing its time, and a classic.
10/15/04
I expected a lot more from this film. It's basically a rambling boredom piece.
04/30/03
Perhaps the most overrated of the early ’70s masterpieces.
08/30/02
No review available.
01/12/04
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