{"id":86446,"date":"2022-08-21T17:55:04","date_gmt":"2022-08-22T00:55:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=86446"},"modified":"2022-08-21T19:01:30","modified_gmt":"2022-08-22T02:01:30","slug":"underground-u-s-a-1980","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=86446","title":{"rendered":"Underground U.S.A. (1980)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;This whole set-up is a mess.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Underground-U.S.A.-Poster.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Underground-U.S.A.-Poster-248x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"248\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-86447\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Underground-U.S.A.-Poster-248x300.png 248w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Underground-U.S.A.-Poster-106x128.png 106w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Underground-U.S.A.-Poster-223x270.png 223w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Underground-U.S.A.-Poster.png 743w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 248px) 100vw, 248px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nIn New York City, a penniless actress (Patti Astor) living with a younger man (Rene Ricard) and a chauffeur (Tom Wright) begins an affair with a drifter (Eric Mitchell) who moves in with them, and tries to revive her career.\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>Actors and Actresses<\/li>\n<li>Has-Beens<\/li>\n<li>New York City<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nThe opening sentence of Peary&#8217;s review for this &#8220;cult film by <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Eric_Mitchell_(filmmaker)\">Eric  Mitchell<\/a>&#8221; &#8212; about &#8220;a bisexual Greenwich Village street hustler&#8221; (played by Mitchell himself) &#8220;who latches on to a former movie actress&#8230; only to discover that she has no money or friends and is weirded out from taking drugs to relieve her depression&#8221;: <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Underground-USA-Mitchell.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Underground-USA-Mitchell.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-86453\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Underground-USA-Mitchell.png 640w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Underground-USA-Mitchell-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Underground-USA-Mitchell-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Underground-USA-Mitchell-360x270.png 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8212; dates his book in ways that the majority of his writing doesn&#8217;t, given that he notes it &#8220;has had some success as a midnight movie (particularly in New York) and has played on PBS as an example of arty\/<em>avant-garde<\/em> independent films currently being made.&#8221; He writes that he wishes writer-director &#8220;Mitchell hadn&#8217;t decided to make another variation on <a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=3986\"><em>Sunset Boulevard<\/em><\/a>, especially since Andy Warhol had already made a pretty good counterculture version in 1972, <em>Heat<\/em>&#8221; &#8212; and &#8220;at this point the story hasn&#8217;t many surprises left.&#8221; * <\/p>\n<p>Peary points out that &#8220;from this film it&#8217;s hard to tell how talented or original Mitchell is&#8221; &#8212; and while &#8220;there are some interesting scenes, use of color, and camera angles,&#8221; &#8220;in general [he finds] the characters uninvolving, the dialogue trite, and the pacing too slow.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Underground-USA-Still.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Underground-USA-Still.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-86449\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Underground-USA-Still.png 640w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Underground-USA-Still-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Underground-USA-Still-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Underground-USA-Still-360x270.png 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll say! Even at just 85 minutes long, this movie feels positively glacial. I was only able to start understanding the &#8220;plot&#8221; about a third of the way through, and the uniformly amateur acting didn&#8217;t help matters any. These days, this arthouse film is incredibly challenging to find, with zero user reviews on IMDb; it will primarily (perhaps exclusively) be of interest to devotees of this particular time and place in cultural history. <\/p>\n<p>* Spoiler alert: things end badly for Astor&#8217;s character.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Underground-USA-Ending.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Underground-USA-Ending.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-86450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Underground-USA-Ending.png 640w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Underground-USA-Ending-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Underground-USA-Ending-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Underground-USA-Ending-360x270.png 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A time capsule glimpse at a particular moment in the NY art scene<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Underground-USA-Dress-Picture.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Underground-USA-Dress-Picture.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-86448\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Underground-USA-Dress-Picture.png 640w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Underground-USA-Dress-Picture-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Underground-USA-Dress-Picture-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Underground-USA-Dress-Picture-360x270.png 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNope; skip this one unless it&#8217;s exactly your cup of tea. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0081682\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/teenagefrankensteinblog.wordpress.com\/2017\/02\/25\/underground-u-s-a-1980\/\">Teenage Frankenstein Blog Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/movies\/underground-u-s-a\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;This whole set-up is a mess.&#8221; Synopsis: In New York City, a penniless actress (Patti Astor) living with a younger man (Rene Ricard) and a chauffeur (Tom Wright) begins an affair with a drifter (Eric Mitchell) who moves in with them, and tries to revive her career. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Actors and Actresses Has-Beens New York City Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: The opening sentence of Peary&#8217;s review for this &#8220;cult film by Eric Mitchell&#8221; &#8212; about &#8220;a bisexual&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=86446\"> 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":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86446","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=86446"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86463,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86446\/revisions\/86463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=86446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=86446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=86446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}