Nashville

In his review of Robert Altman’s Nashville, Roger Ebert wrote that, “Altman is the best natural filmmaker since Fellini.” Quite high praise from one of the deans of American film criticism. Considered by many to be Altman’s masterpiece, Nashville is a sprawling (24 characters followed over five days) mash up of music industry insiders, wannabes, never will-be’s, wanderers, journalists, politicians and so on. As in most of Altman’s films, plot is really an afterthought in the pursuit of the delineation and exploration of character, in a way we have not quite seen since his exit. Nashville the film is, of course, about Nashville the city, but also very much about a fragmented and traumatized America that has just emerged from Vietnam and is on the eve of its bicentennial. The huge cast includes such luminaries as Lily Tomlin, Karen Black, Henry Gibson, Keith Carradine, and Elliot Gould. — Craig Holden