Man of the Century

"Man of the Century" is inspired by silent comedies, early talking movies, vaudeville, and old RKO films.

It gives us a light-hearted look at the different ways in which cultural mores are portrayed in the 1920's and in the 1990's. The opening sequence has the look of the earliest films -- complete with scratches and grainy images and the jerkiness of old home movies. The rest of the film is in high-quality black and white with fine camera work. The film is co-written by Adam Abraham (who also directs) and Gibson Frazier (who stars in the title role as Johnny Twennies).

Johnny Twennies writes a column for a New York newspaper. The time is the 1990's, but Johnny is clearly living in the 1920's. We hear 1920's cliches from him and 1990's cliches from others. Johnny's tenacious innocence is refreshing and quite funny beside Samantha Winter's (Susan Egan) modern day social values. It is funny to hear Johnny swear with words like Applesauce! and Rats! while also hearing the ubiquitous use of f___ing by the others on

screen. The "endless stairs" is a brilliant sequence that breaks up the fast-talking dialogue. Since I love to dance, I was particularly overjoyed with a dance number with Johnny and Samantha dancing the Charlston while the others who are clearly older were dancing the jitterbug and swing and other more modern dances. Johnny's dance partner / leading lady is played impeccably by Susan Egan.

The film is face-paced. I know that I missed many of the innuendos and jokes. I love old movies, but I am not a student of those films or times. I found much pleasure in the experience even though I missed the significance of many one-liners. I also found that I had to adjust to the initial few minutes, first wondering if I was going to have to sit through 80 minutes of scratched film and then wondering what year it was because of the juxtaposition of modern cars and archaic language. About six persons left the audience in a group of about 100-120 individuals who were in an advance screening of the movie. Most of those who stayed were thoroughly engrossed in the film and applauded at the end.

It is similar in many ways to the "Purple Rose of Cairo" and "Pleasantville" in that it carries the charm of someone out of the current time or environment, frozen in another time and culture. Gestures, language, and tempo can be best compared to early films as a whole rather than to a specific film.

"Man of the Century" won the audience award at the 1999 Slamdance Film Festival. If the team of Abraham and Frazier can create another film of comparable quality in a different genre, they will make an enormous contribution to film making.

Some movies are just meant to be a great deal of fun, and this is one of them. What a delight - I'd never heard of it but stumbled on it on IFC and adored it. The sweetness and good-natured aspects of the film are part of the charm, as is the dead-on dialogue, situations and even camera angles/cinematography. For people who try and find reasons why this guy exists or why women would date him, you're missing the point of the movie. The Marx Brothers ending (no spoiler really), and the short Egyptian tomb sequence show the care that was taken with getting all the 1920's aspects down perfectly (and don't forget the musical numbers, when people would break into song in any sort of film back then -well, the talkies at least). Going incognito as Harold Lloyd? too funny - don't pass this one by when it shows up next time!

If Harold Lloyd had lived in 1999 and Woody Allen starred him in a new black and white film set in MANHATTAN, well this would be it. The idea for this film is very funny and it does deliver, musical numbers and all....there is even a Shanghai Lil style detour. It could have easily been more of a musical and easily have tossed in more episodes of Johnny Twennies wrangling modern mannerisms. Gibson Frasier is a real silent movie or Vitaphone hero and the IT girl sensibilities of 'his girl' works. It is only 77 minutes and I actually wanted more. As Johnny says in one very funny toss away line........RATS! The soundtrack which I also have at home as a Saturday morning pick-me-up is cute and accurate for the feel of the film.

I chanced to see this on a Blockbuster shelf and in the dearth of anything else worth seeing, decided to take a chance. How glad I am! This is the funniest movie I've seen in years. In spite of being the original tightwad, I've ordered the DVD and have even sent one to my son whose humor runs in the same crooked gully as mine. The gimmick of a living anachronism is a powerful one indeed but to someone like myself who was raised on reporter movies of the 20s, who saw Cagney, Raft and Powell play these kinds of roles, using the same slang and expressions, now so out of date, I literally howled with delight. The acting is wonderful. As one reviewer here noted, everyone seemed to be having a delightful time. The film is just great, from the scratchy opening credits to the final scenes. Also, if you get the DVD, be sure and check out the reference section and scene set-up after the film is over. They are just delightful. Plot? What plot? The story is an eternal one: Virtuous young man in the face of chaos struggles to maintain the fabric of order in a basically disorderly universe while falling in love and being too virtuously shy to declare his feelings to the girl he loves, beating up bad guys and defending the honor of helpless young women and, revealing to the world the archvillain at the root of the evil in the empire. And, he does it all without getting dirty, mussed or messed up and losing sight of his goal. Wow. Get this. See it. Share it. It's just too damn good to miss. You'll be glad you did, kiddo.

Caught this on cable quite by accident-- the idea behind it seemed really cute, and I decided to give it 10 minutes, to at least see how long it took for the filmmakers to screw it up.

Surprisingly, it held my attention for the entire film. The gimmick never got old; just when it seemed in danger of doing so, something new would happen to keep it fresh. A new character here, a plot twist there. Good, thoughtful filmmaking... and I really dug the 1920's slang. I wish I could remember more of it. Why DID we stop talking like this, anyway?

Good acting, some clever writing and a smartly-plotted story. The ending was a little cheesy, I thought, as I wanted to know the fates of the characters beyond the newspaper-story driven plot. But considering the source material, it really ended the only way it could have. So it's an amusing distraction for 90 minutes or so. And kind of educational, too. Banana Oil!