Monday, April 11, 2016

Harold and Maude (1971)

This cult classic is so awkward and hilarious and brilliant. The premise is so bizarre that you can't help but laugh. Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon make such an unlikely pair that their chemistry is kind of unreal. They bond over their hobby of attending funerals for fun. Harold stages elaborate suicides that are each more ridiculous than the last. It shouldn't be funny but it is. Once you get past the first suicide and you realize that he is not actually dead, you start to lighten up and laugh at Harold's misery. And he drives a hearse! The crazy old lady is a great complement to morbid Harold. Good eccentric characters like Maude can carry the whole film. While Harold drags the movie along, lingering for comedic effect, Maude moves it forward. Together they just work.

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