You're a Big Boy Now

Coppola's second feature, a free-wheeling comedy about a young man (Kastner) and his frenzied efforts to rid himself of sexual and other inhibitions inculcated by smugly protective/possessive parents (Torn and Page). Though boarded out with a neurotically strait-laced landlady (Harris) whose brief is to keep him pure, he nevertheless contrives to be pursued by a nice girl who loves him (Black), while he perversely lusts after an all-too available actress (Hartman), only to be let down by his rebellious member. Very much of its time (i.e influenced by Godard, Dick Lester and the whole dropout thing), it now looks archly dated rather than spontaneous. But Coppola's style had healthy roots in the screwball comedies of the '30s, and the glorious performances litter the film with moments to treasure (like Julie Harris' anguished cry when locked into a library vault with the innocent Torn: 'Trapped in the pornography collection of a fiend!').