THE LAST MOVIE STAR (2017) ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Adam Rifkin
Burt Reynolds, Ariel Winter, Clark Duke,
Ellar Coltrane, Chevy Chase, Al Jaleel Knox
Burt Reynolds gives the performance of his life - literally - as Vic Edwards, an old Hollywood actor who flies off to Nashville to accept a career-achievement award at what turns out to be the world's least prestigious film festival. His driver and personal assistant while he's there is a punk teenager played by Ariel Winter, and in the couple of days they spend together, they clash and bicker and bond, and mostly predictable things happen. What's not predictable necessarily is how low-key and affecting Reynolds is, playing a barely fictionalized version of himself. In a couple of key moments, CGI allows old Burt to slip into scenes in "Deliverance" and "Smokey and the Bandit" and warn his younger self how he's going to fuck up. (Young Burt, who still has life by the tail, couldn't care less.) Rifkin wrote the movie specifically for Reynolds, to the point where it's impossible to imagine Vic Edwards being played by anybody else. It's a matter of luck and timing that they got to make the picture while Reynolds was still around to play in it. For all the throwaway work he did, the guy really could act. Watch "The Last Movie Star". You'll see.
