As Good As It Gets

The acting in this movie is really good.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

For a prize fighter, winning is everything, but if you're a loser when you climb into the ring, you're still going to be a loser when you come out, even if you KO your opponent. Such might be the moral of this very atypical sports movie, starring Stacy Keach and Jeff Bridges as aspiring fighters in the lower echelons of the boxing game in and around Stockton, California.John Huston was one of the most commercially and popularly successful of mainstream Hollywood directors, making such major classics as The Maltese Falcon, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and The African Queen, yet most film historians and critics have been reluctant to rank him among the best cinematic artists. Fat City makes it hard to see why: this gritty, realistic film is one of those great films which surprises you by how much more it seems like real life than like a movie. Keach and Bridges both give what may be their best performances, and Susan Tyrrell, an actress better known for stage work, gives an unforgettable performance as an alcoholic barfly, for which she was nominated for an Oscar, and she should have won.Fat City is not at all a typical sports film, which by Hollywood convention must show a hero overcoming early difficulties to rise to stardom, nor is it really about boxing, though it includes an extended fight scene which may be the best ever included in a Hollywood film -- the fact that Huston was a prize fighter himself in his youth no doubt adds to the authenticity of the prize ring atmosphere. But this is a film about people, very flawed people who manage to hold onto some shreds of integrity and to be kind to one another, despite the fact that they are all in their own desperate situation. The atmosphere of the seedy towns and endless fields of California's Central Valley, a rare location for major films, is portrayed with great vividness and accuracy.All in all, not a fun film, but an unforgettable one. The Sony Home Entertainment DVD is of acceptable quality, but this film really needs to be remastered and put on Blu-Ray.

I knew this film was one listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I didn't know anything else about the film besides this, this was good enough reason for me to try it, directed by John Huston (The Treasure of Sierra Madre, The Asphalt Jungle, The African Queen, The Man Who Would Be King). Basically at a gym in Stockton, California, past his prime boxer Billy Tully (Stacy Keach) meets eighteen-year-old Ernie Munger (Jeff Bridges), they getting into shape and spar with each other. Tully sees potential in young Ernie, he suggests he looks up his former manager and trainer Ruben (Nicholas Colasanto), he tells about how impressed he is with the kid to aggressive barfly Oma Lee Greer (Oscar nominated Susan Tyrrell) and her easygoing boyfriend Earl (Curtis Cokes), Tully is newly inspired and keen to get back in the ring himself. Ever since his wife left him Tully's life has been a mess, he drinks too much and cannot hold down a job, he picks fruit and vegetables to make ends meet, he still blames Ruben for mishandling his last fight. Earl is sent to prison for a few months, this allows Tully to try moving in with Ola, but the relationship between them is rocky. Munger loses his first fight and gets his nose broken, he is knocked out in his second fight as well, Munger gets forced into marrying Faye (Candy Clark) when she becomes pregnant, he starts picking fruit himself to make some money. In his first fight back in the ring, Tully fights against tough Mexican boxer Lucero (Sixto Rodriguez), he is much older and in considerable pain, they knock each other out before Tully is declared the winner, but his celebration is brief as he is only paid $100. Tully ends his business partnership with Ruben, he then returns to Oma's apartment, Earl is there and still paying the rent, Earl assures him that alcoholic Oma wants nothing to do with Tully anymore. One night, Munger is returning home from a fight, he finds Tully drunk in the street, he tries to ignore him, but he reluctantly agrees to go for a coffee with Tully. The two men sit and drink, Tully has sees strange things while looking at all the people around him, he almost breaks down with how his career is failing while Munger's is progressing, Munger tells him he should leave, but Tully wants to stay and talk some more, they continue to sit and drink coffee in silence. Also starring Art Aragon as Babe, Sixto Rodriguez as Lucero, Billy Walker as Wes, Wayne Mahan as Buford and Ruben Navarro as Fuentes. Keach (whose part was originally offered to Marlon Brando) is good as the prize-fighter going down in the dumps, and Bridges does well as the young contender on the rise, their rocky relationship certainly creates some tension, most boxing movies have more fights, full of blood, sweat and tears, this film focuses more on the hardships on the career side of it, it is slow at times, but overall an interesting enough sports drama. Good!

To the fans of Charles Bukowski, you guys might want to check out this film. Its about the boxing scene in Stockton, California - described through the lives of two boxers, their lovers and their common trainer. It is a sad film about the ups and downs (mostly downs) in the boxers lives as they grapple with all the bad luck, the women, ennui and sloth. The characters were extremely fatalistic, seemingly unable to conquer the devil inside their minds or conquering it for a short while before it starts working on them again.Sex is an important part of the film. One of the boxers, Billy Tully (Stacy Keach) cannot seem to get over his wife leaving him. A spiritually wounding affair with an alcoholic woman does not allow him to forget his wife whom he loved dearly. Even when he tries to revive his flagging boxing career, it is in the hope that he can win his wife back. The other boxer, Ernie Munger (Jeff Bridges) is deeply insecure about his new wife. Another important aspect of the film is its shabby run down small town vibe. I love American films like these with its gas stations, small town bars, long empty roads, side streets, orchards, barren fields, levees and ugly one room apartments. There is something very idyllic yet bleak about these landscapes.The wiry Stacy Keach excels in a role that was offered to none other than Marlon Brando. Jeff Bridges plays a mildly talented but ultimately bland young man without any real personality. Susan Tyrrell is brilliant as an impulsive and alcoholic woman who befriends Stacy Keach's wounded boxer. Nicholas Colasanto steals the show despite the presence of all the other great actors. His turn as a cynical but persistent trainer added so much to this film. I was thinking about some of the Charles Bukowski novels that I had read while I was watching the film. I recommend the book by Leonard Gardner too. Best Regards, Pimpin.(9/10)

'Fat City' has an solid and hard-won reputation. It was released to the cinema in 1972 with little fanfare. It got good notices but was one of those films that could not expect immediate success with a fickle public prone to more showy attractions; today it has a loyal following amongst those not oblivious to its virtues. As embarrassing as it is to admit, on discovering 'Fat City' I clasped it to my heart in gratitude: I had found something worthy of my attention that was not Hollywood vulgarity nor mindless escapism for the great unwashed. It was a film with backbone, a film with brain. 'Fat City' is an unforgettable portrayal of lost and lonely people quietly losing what is left of their lives. They struggle to survive but the struggle is pointless and they are left at the mercy of an unyielding fate that can only be guessed at, because of the film's refusal to pander to audience expectations of mindless resolutions and resolutely happy endings. Winning isn't the issue, but how much it's going to cost merely to survive. But most of all 'Fat City' is a film with its heart in the right place. The characters are not remarkable, they may not even be bright, but they are real and breathing people being photographed as their lives are disintegrating in front of us. Such an approach was relief from the stifling boundaries of Hollywood notions of entertainment when I first saw the film on ex-rental VHS and remains so today.The characters in this story are played by Jeff Bridges as Ernie, and Stacy Keach as Billy. Ernie and Billy are both going in opposite directions in their lives one up (supposedly) and the other down. They make a connection with each other for the purposes of mutual support and camaraderie, both scarcities in the world of small time boxing in Stockton California where the movie is set. Billy has already begun his downward trajectory towards oblivion for personal and professional reasons. He meets Ernie, an inarticulate young man with some talent and sets him on his way to what they both hope will be a successful boxing career. Things however, don't go entirely to plan. Candy Clark plays Jeff's girlfriend, a lost soul, who seems incapable of making her own decisions. A relatively unknown actress Susan Tyrell received an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress for her part as Oma, Stacy Keach's mentally unstable girlfriend. Both give standout performances, but Tyrell's is more showy, and it's understandable why the Academy took notice. The film was shot on location in Stockton, and the rest of the cast appear to be locals who effortlessly give the film an authenticity which is so rare for a mainstream American film. Finally, the Kris Kristofferson ballad 'Help Me Make it Through the Night' is prominently featured to excellent effect, in order to illustrate the desolation and loneliness of the main characters.The lack of a driving narrative is actually one of the virtues of 'Fat City', It makes up for this with lots of atmosphere and interesting and believable people. It takes it's time to tell what story there is, and is almost Thomas Hardy-like in its sense of fatalism. I could be facetious by describing 'Fat City' as a hybrid of Thomas Hardy, with a bit of 'Barfly' thrown in. The two films are strikingly similar in their portrayal of the working class streets of an anonymous, American city, and its characters, largely inarticulate and living on the fringe, which is a polite way of saying that they're poor. It strikes me with these kinds of films which don't wish to be seen as mainstream, how bold they are in depicting the reality of poverty in America as if being poor is a crime. I think this kind of approach is more of a reality now than it was when 'Fat City' was originally made.Boxing is portrayed in 'Fat City' as a nasty, unpleasant business that scars the lives of the men and women who inhabit it and suffice to say, this isn't your conventional Hollywood boxing film. It's not remotely like any other and to compare 'Fat City' with 'Raging Bull' is like comparing aesthetics to real human engagement. Huston has an interest in the characters both as human beings with the ability to act freely (at least once), as well as victims of a corrupt society which really doesn't care for them. The fetishisation of two men pounding it out in the ring is of no concern to Huston, but rather the dubious morality of feeding unrealistic expectations to the poor and disenfranchised when their lives are not enriched but destroyed by the notion of an American 'success' which they crave for themselves but can never achieve because of an unjust economic inequality entrenched in the American system. If this seems like an overly didactic interpretation of the film, it's because the realism it displays is endemic and one cannot help, if one respects a film, to treat it on its own terms instead of offering a critique that is not adequate to its purpose.According to other critics more influential than I, 'Fat City' is right up there as one of John Huston's best films, and is believed by many to be his crowning achievement. There are some who even rate it as one of the best films of the '70s, but the fact is that this has been far less seen, than other, better known and more familiar titles, that it could be argued, are not nearly as good. For so many reasons, 'Fat City' deserves to be seen by a larger audience who I am sure would appreciate it as much as those who have been lucky enough to see it in the past. For anyone reading who hasn't, you won't fail to be captivated by the lyricism and meaningful human truths of 'Fat City'.