{"id":15194,"date":"2010-12-11T17:06:45","date_gmt":"2010-12-12T00:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=15194"},"modified":"2021-01-22T23:46:18","modified_gmt":"2021-01-23T06:46:18","slug":"on-the-nickel-1980","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=15194","title":{"rendered":"On the Nickel (1980)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Goddamnit, I don&#8217;t want this world no more!&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/On-the-Nickel-Poster.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/On-the-Nickel-Poster-199x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-65262\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/On-the-Nickel-Poster-199x300.png 199w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/On-the-Nickel-Poster-680x1024.png 680w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/On-the-Nickel-Poster-85x128.png 85w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/On-the-Nickel-Poster-179x270.png 179w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/On-the-Nickel-Poster.png 725w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA former alcoholic (Donald Moffat) goes searching for his friend (Ralph Waite) in L.A.&#8217;s skid row.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Alcoholism and Drug Addiction<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nMovies about homeless, alcoholic, and\/or mentally ill individuals are finicky beasts to get right &#8212; and this low-budget indie film (written and directed by Ralph Waite of &#8220;The Waltons&#8221; fame) is no exception to this tendency. Well-meaning and sincere, but ultimately pedantic and overly sentimentalized, it follows the rather aimless story of a recovering alcoholic (Donald Moffat, giving a fine central performance) who suddenly decides to see what happened to his former drinking buddy (Waite himself), and thus re-encounters the world he left behind. Unfortunately, there doesn&#8217;t appear to be much urgency behind Moffat&#8217;s quest, which comes across as merely an excuse for a would-be <em>cinema verite<\/em> look at the lives of &#8220;winos&#8221; in L.A.&#8217;s infamous Skid Row. We&#8217;re briefly shown a romantic encounter between Waite and his long-time girlfriend, played by Penelope Allen (who knew that down-and-out alcoholics could maintain loving partnerships!?), but we never get to know anything at all about these two as individuals; same goes for Moffat and the friend (Hal Williams) who accompanies him on his Orpheus-like quest. <\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the universe inhabited by the film&#8217;s characters is a tad too black-and-white to ring true: the policemen who chase them off their downtown camping ground are presented as merely unfeeling brutes, and the doctor who examines Waites in the hospital treats him literally like a clinical specimen (indeed, his lecture to the medical students standing around him is almost laughable). Finally, whatever emergent compassion we&#8217;ve grown to feel for the characters disappears by the film&#8217;s final incongruous half hour, when events inexplicably turn comedic, with Moffat and his friends ransacking a crematory for the ashes of a friend who has just died; it&#8217;s actually quite tasteless. Watch <em>Leaving Las Vegas<\/em> (1995) instead if you&#8217;re in the mood for witnessing the devastation and downward spiral of chronic alcoholism. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Donald Moffat as Sam<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/on-the-nickel-moffatt.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/on-the-nickel-moffatt.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15196\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Good use of downtown L.A. locales<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/on-the-nickel-settings.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/on-the-nickel-settings.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15197\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Tom Waits&#8217; haunting theme song<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, though Moffat&#8217;s performance makes it worth a look if you stumble upon it. Listed as a Sleeper in the back of Peary&#8217;s book. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0081277\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.spiritualityandpractice.com\/films\/films.php?id=7627\">Spirituality and Practice Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Goddamnit, I don&#8217;t want this world no more!&#8221; Synopsis: A former alcoholic (Donald Moffat) goes searching for his friend (Ralph Waite) in L.A.&#8217;s skid row. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Alcoholism and Drug Addiction Review: Movies about homeless, alcoholic, and\/or mentally ill individuals are finicky beasts to get right &#8212; and this low-budget indie film (written and directed by Ralph Waite of &#8220;The Waltons&#8221; fame) is no exception to this tendency. Well-meaning and sincere, but ultimately pedantic and overly sentimentalized,&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=15194\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15194"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65263,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15194\/revisions\/65263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}