Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (May 28, 2024)
1968’s Finian’s Rainbow became Francis Ford Coppola’s first directorial effort at a major studio. Two years earlier, 1966’s independent flick You’re a Big Boy Now made enough of a splash to help get him to that position.
19-year-old Bernard Chanticleer (Peter Kastner) lives with his parents IH (Rip Torn) and Margery (Geraldine Page) on Long Island. Against the wishes of the possessive Margery, the stern IH decides Bernard needs to move out and deal with life as a man.
Bernard winds up in a Greenwich Village rooming house. On his own for the first time, Bernard encounters a slew of situations and acquaintances who prompt him to change and grow.
Not long before I got this Blu-ray for Now, I watched 1969’s The Rain People. Coppola’s only film between Rainbow and his commercial and critical breakout with 1972’s Godfather, I thought Rain People showed few signs of the immense talent the director possessed.
Does Now fare any better? Yes, though I still feel it does little to signify the greatness Coppola would demonstrate in the 1970s.
Now presents an oddity in the Coppola catalog due to genre. The filmmaker made precious few comedies over his career, and perhaps none as broad as this one.
Not that Now shoots for Three Stooges-style laughs. Nonetheless, it pushes more toward wackiness that anything else in the Coppola catalog.
I can’t claim Coppola flops in that regard, but he fails to show much aptitude for comedy. Perhaps that’s why he avoided the genre in the future, as this tone simply feels like an awkward fit for him.
Much of Now also clearly highlights a filmmaker in progress, mainly related to the fairly clumsy script and the general lack of coherence. At its core, we get a simple story here.
A basic “coming of age” narrative, much of Now revolves around Bernard’s romantic entanglements. While nice girl Amy Partlett (Karen Black) pursues him, Bernard instead becomes obsessed with the erratic and manipulative Barbara Darling (Elizabeth Hartman).
Rather than simply focus on this love triangle, Coppola shows a lack of self-confidence and muddies the waters. This means a mix of nutty supporting characters who create pointless diversions.
Coppola also fails to tell the story in a logical manner. Some of that stems from those aforementioned pointless diversions, but he also indulges in random scenes that don’t push along the story and seem to exist as basic padding.
Now does boast a pretty solid cast. Although Kastner’s career never went much of anywhere, the others mentioned moved to bigger/better things, and we find “names” like Julie Harris, Tony Bill and Dolph Sweet as well.
All of this leaves us with a mildly watchable comedy that never quite gels. While not a bad movie, Now remains more interesting for its pedigree than its actual merits.
