Movie Reviews by Edwin Jahiel

PAPER MOON (1973)

One of the very best films, superb by any criteria --along with the earlier "The Last Picture Show" and the later "Saint Jack" -- in the most uneven career of director Peter Bogdanovich, a person whom cinephiles always wished to be successful. Nine-year old newcomer Tatum O'Neal plays the world-smart and street-wise kid who joins forces with con man Ryan O'Neal (her father in real life) in a series of adventures and peregrinations through Kansas during the first Franklin Roosevelt years. Clever, amusing, witty, colorful, splendidly performed by Tatum (Oscar) Editing by Verna Fields; camera by Lazslo Kovacs. Kansas is a good, ironic choice as Tatum is not only the anti-Shirley Temple but also the anti-Judy Garland who left Kansas for Oz. (Edwin Jahiel)