When it comes to mainstream, American movies of the 1960s, Mickey One has got to be one of the most bizarre, non-Hollywood, "boy-meets-girl" stories that you're ever likely to see.
Clearly influenced by the avant-garde,"New Wave" cinema which was flourishing in Europe during this era in movie-making history, Mickey One is a decidedly out-of-whack nightmare world of urban America where city life is depicted in a "Twilight Zone"-like fashion of unrelenting paranoia, cynicism and loneliness.
Due to its simplistic, yet frustrating and confusing, plot-line, I guarantee you that Mickey One is not going to be everyone's cup of tea.
Along with its exceptional b&w camera-work, its eccentric characters, and its grungy setting, this is one of those rare films whose story actually seems to work on the terms of its own inner logic.
Impressively directed by Arthur Penn, and starring the fresh-faced, 28-year-old, Warren Beatty, as the title character, Mickey One's story (first set in Detroit, then in Chicago) has this youthful protagonist (who's an in-demand stand-up comic with a terrible repertoire of jokes) running scared when he's tipped off that the mob has a contract out on his life.
I certainly wasn't expecting to be so impressed with this picture. From my perspective, Mickey One is definitely the sort of film where words just don't do it justice. One really needs to see this film for themselves and from there they can make a fair judgement whether to simply dismiss it as trash or else enjoy it in all of its offbeat unconventionality.
P.S. - I was really surprised how very little violence Mickey One contained. But when that violence came, it came mighty hard and mean.
Clearly influenced by the avant-garde,"New Wave" cinema which was flourishing in Europe during this era in movie-making history, Mickey One is a decidedly out-of-whack nightmare world of urban America where city life is depicted in a "Twilight Zone"-like fashion of unrelenting paranoia, cynicism and loneliness.
Due to its simplistic, yet frustrating and confusing, plot-line, I guarantee you that Mickey One is not going to be everyone's cup of tea.
Along with its exceptional b&w camera-work, its eccentric characters, and its grungy setting, this is one of those rare films whose story actually seems to work on the terms of its own inner logic.
Impressively directed by Arthur Penn, and starring the fresh-faced, 28-year-old, Warren Beatty, as the title character, Mickey One's story (first set in Detroit, then in Chicago) has this youthful protagonist (who's an in-demand stand-up comic with a terrible repertoire of jokes) running scared when he's tipped off that the mob has a contract out on his life.
I certainly wasn't expecting to be so impressed with this picture. From my perspective, Mickey One is definitely the sort of film where words just don't do it justice. One really needs to see this film for themselves and from there they can make a fair judgement whether to simply dismiss it as trash or else enjoy it in all of its offbeat unconventionality.
P.S. - I was really surprised how very little violence Mickey One contained. But when that violence came, it came mighty hard and mean.