The Last Movie Star

The Last Movie Star was an appropriate last film for Burt Reynolds, as he stars as a character modeled on him, an elderly man who was once the biggest star in America, now living alone, shopping in supermarkets without being recognized, and accepting an invitation to the International Nashville Film Festival, accepting a lifetime achievement award.

The film is affectionate toward its subject and star, while full of sentimental cliches. Once he arrives in Nashville, he finds that it's a very low-rent affair. Instead of a limo, he is chauffeured in a beat up car driven by a feisty and uncaring young woman (Ariel Winter), who is constantly battling over the phone with her boyfriend, Bjorn. He gets a room in a Ramada Inn, and the festival itself is in a bar. As the first film is screened, Reynolds ducks out and gets drunk. The film festival organizers (Clark Duke and Ellar Coltrane) discover that their hero is an asshole.

The next day Reynolds does some Wild Strawberries stuff, going to his childhood home in Knoxville, Tennessee. Winter, of course, will eventually come to like him, as he will she (fortunately there is no romantic attachment).

Director Adam Rifkin wrote the film specifically for Reynolds, and says he wouldn't have done the film if Reynolds wouldn't do it. Many old clips of Reynolds are incorporated, with the old Reynolds talking to the young Reynolds. Reynolds' character, Vic Edwards, is described as an actor who made bad film choices that diminished his standing as an actor. It must have been weird for Reynolds to play himself, essentially.

Rifkin's script deals with the obvious. Consider Winter's character. We know she's kooky--she wears a ring in her nose and makes art of screaming, monstrous figures. Winter, known for playing a nerd on Modern Family, does a nice job making me forget that character.

Popping up in a cameo is Chevy Chase, playing one of Reynolds' old buddies.