Movie Review Monday #47: City Slickers

City Slickers seemed to always be playing at my grandmother's house on Sundays after church, yet I'd never sat down and watched the whole thing until last Saturday. Observations:


1. I fell in love with Norman. Like, I had tears in my eyes when his life was in peril. That kind of love.

Those eyelashes are to die for, Norman.

2. Dude. I was just going to ask what ever happened to Bruno Kirby, Billy Crystal's sidekick in this film and When Harry Met Sally, so I asked my BFF imdb.com, and apparently he's been dead since 2006. Downer. Sorry about that.
3. Gah. Same with Jack Palance! Gone. Sad. Amazing, though. He won an Academy Award for his performance in this film, and it was well-earned. He was mysterious, funny, strong, thoughtful, brutish...so glad he could do those one-armed push-ups to prove he would live through filming. (See his Oscar speech on youtube to know what I'm talking about.)
4. I was noticing that Billy Crystal has a similar body of work to Steve Carell. Both play unlikely leading men, hilarious, slightly awkward, lovable, charming, and their films tend to have a redemptive, sweet quality to them. I wish more films and more actors were like this.
5. This film was oddly thought-provoking. Billy's character is basically having an epic midlife crisis, but some of his musings got me thinking too. Luckily I tended to disagree with his depressed thoughts at the beginning of the film, but Curly's life philosophy still has me reflecting. He says:

Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is? This. [holds up one finger]

Mitch: Your finger?

Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don’t mean s***.

Mitch: But what is the “one thing?”

Curly: [smiles] That’s what you have to find out.

I wonder what my one thing is. I mean, my one person is Jesus, obviously. But I'm thinking what else in addition to Him? Is it writing? Mothering? Interpretive dance? I'm almost 30 (oh geez.) and I'm still not completely sure. And I think that's okay. And I also have this inkling that maybe more than one thing is also okay.


In conclusion, I give City Slickers two claws up. It's timelessly funny, thought-provoking, and has a cute cow. Rent it today!