Nothing Lasts Forever

A wide-eyed young man (Zach Galligan) arrives in New York with aspirations of becoming an artist. Once inside the confines of the city (which is VERY confined in this totalitarian society) he's prepped to become a working stiff, but an eccentric homeless person whom he has been overly generous to eventually guides the boy to his true fate.

The only thing stranger than the fact that this picture has barely been seen anywhere (officially, anyway) is that it was financed by a major studio. "Nothing Last Forever" is not a movie that mainstream '80s moviegoers would have flocked to see. Quite the contrary, if it had been widely released there's absolutely no question that it would have been an epic bomb... which is exactly the appeal.

Filmed mostly in black and white (with a few color sequences), it's simultaneously an homage and a parody of classic films. There are many breathtaking visuals and wonderful performances (from an amazing cast) and the film manages to get stranger as it rolls along, blending shadowy noir with kitschy sci-fi and light drama with heavy farce. As another reviewer pointed out, it's difficult NOT to draw comparisons to Terry Gilliam's "Brazil," which was made on a grander scale but is equally as offbeat, surreal and impossible to accurately describe. In other words, like that film, "Nothing Lasts Forever" is truly a work of art.

Here's hoping MGM will one day give the movie the lavish release that it deserves. While it'll never be a multi-billion-dollar draw, there's definitely a huge cult audience waiting to discover this lost gem.

A truly bizarre film, but all the more entertaining because of it. Starts off in the style of a 1930s science fiction, and just seems to get stranger and stranger. I particularly liked the guided tour of the lunar surface for the paying tourists who laughed when their guide made a comment on the crashed Soviet probe she drew their attention to. The idea of native "moon people" (who look like native Hawaiians), also being another nice touch. Obviously, there was a very creative mind at work here.

Never officially released, neither theatrically nor on home media, Tom Schiller's surreal science fiction fantasy Nothing Lasts Forever stars Zach Galligan as an eager young artist struggling to find his creative outlet in a New York City under the tyrannical rule of the Port Authority. Shot in black and white (for the most part) and with the sound recorded in mono, the film replicates the Classical Hollywood style of the late '30s and early '40s to create a dreamlike work that, had it been made during the indie boom of the '90s, would have easily found a cult following. Featuring strong supporting work from the likes of Dan Aykroyd, Lauren Tom, Apollonia van Ravenstein and Bill Murray – not to mention a midpoint shift in narrative that will leave an unsuspecting viewer reeling – Nothing Last Forever is an oddity of a film, perhaps too unusual for its time, that deserves, at the very least, a proper worldwide release.

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Easily one of the most charming unspoken of movies I have ever seen, especially capturing the supreme Golden age of Hollywood ("The Wizard of Oz) in the middle of a decade that brought us "Predators", "Gremlins", "Aliens", and "Lethal Weapon", etc. Talk about a genre-changer! A film that even came out a year before Terry Gilliam's masterpiece "Brazil" that is similar in many ways; reminding me of the blissful Sam Lowry in an oppressive bureaucratic world searching for love.

The film makes a lot work with so very little (adding to its charm) and gives us a certainly flawed journey of one Adam Beckett who aspires to be an artist amidst a surrealist, oppressive 1930's era New York. The black and white photography and camera-work is beautiful blending rather superbly with the stock footage used of the union workers in the streets and the shots of a sprawling NY skyline lit up at night. Add to that the perfect utilization of switching from B&W to color for specific scenes, and you have more evidence of great directing.

There are some moments that perhaps lack some charisma from our lead but the absolute zaniness and odd tangents of the film keep us interested and save us from any true dull moments. Ultimately, the film tells us we should pursue the right choices in life even if the things we want seem so far away. The allegory here is Adam's literal trip to the moon where he discovers a cult has turned the natives into a consumerized, shopified destination of pleasure, and where Adam falls in love with one of the natives; an Hawaiian-like dancer and singer. The final 20 minutes gives us TWO wonderful music numbers; one capturing the final message of the film by the brilliant title and the other punctuating the claim that all that hard work and those good decisions ultimately pay off. The end commits to the odd tangents we've seen all along, remaining just as wacky as the film has been throughout, and then suddenly grounds us back to reality with an awesome finale back at Carnegie Hall where the film began.

Look out for Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray in great minor roles (particularly Murray) with a fantastic ensemble of veterans that bring their stuff reminding me of the magic from some films such as "The Shop Around the Corner", "His Girl Friday", and "It's a Wonderful Life". Highly recommended for those who like films like "Brazil" or the 1930's romantic comedies.

Since a version of this film was "leaked" - if that's the right term -- to YouTube a few days ago, it's had a second life worthy of the film's own protagonist, liberated from a job yelling at bad drivers in the Holland Tunnel to a bravura performance at Carnegie Hall. There have been many evocative or pastiche films of the classic era -- Woody Allen's Purple Rose of Cairo, Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge, or Gary Ross's Pleasantville -- but none has more vividly, sweetly, and yet ironically invoked the magic of the movies as has this film. Don't be distracted by the Dan Ackroyd or Bill Murray cameos (fun as they are): keep your eye on the veterans, who've been in more films than you can count, and who bring their considerable powers to bear here: Sam Jaffe (The Day the Earth Stood Still, Bedknobs and Broomsticks); Paul Rogers (Billy Budd, The Homecoming) and the incomparable Imogene Coca, all part of a secret underground league of New York artists who seek to aid any who will give their all, unreservedly, to the cause of art. This film deserves an immediate DVD/BluRay release -- one can only imagine how richly it will shine -- and shame on MGM, Turner, Warner, and all who have kept this gem in their dark, dim, Gollum-like cavern of oblivion.