This tour de force of cinema schizoid frenzy, almost a funhouse mirror of A Hard Day's Night released a year earlier, `Mickey One' is a living nightmare that makes you glad you like movies. Stan Getz wails warning notes in place of sunny melodies. Alarming jump cuts elbow their way with Fellini characters. The B&W is so sinful it hurts. Not playful in the least, `Mickey One' is a blaring signal of what was to become of the sixties, promising a world of unknown futures, guaranteeing nothing. But after seeing this film, a contemporary filmgoer predicted the sick feeling that all was not as sunny as the love generation promised. It's magical, for sure, but also unsettling, jarring, and totally original. This movie more than any other from its time reflects its time, it's own illusion and the cold hard reality of its situation; it's seamy underbelly seeping into every wall, every street, rarely painted in celluloid so true to time that still ticks today the same savage way.
Not all is perfect in this film. The looping, or dubbing, is awful - a sheet metal noise of monochromatic non-dimension noise that indeed propels the unreality of the surface but also dulls the knife edge of its message, whatever that is. I've seen better-dubbed foreign movies than this din. Perhaps it was designed that way. In a film so full of uneasiness, that could certainly be true.
Were not the Sixties a time of messages? Love it or not, you've got to give Arthur Penn his due for bypassing 60's sentimentality by jarring its viewers back into what they already knew too well - this was the most uncertain and edgy time in this country's history. Sort of an Altamont prediction in its way; a harrowing roller coaster ride that smoothes its rougher edges with just the right amount of post-fifties' alarms screaming in almost every frame. There is no escape anywhere in this movie.
Alexandra Stewart is a bonus - a glowing star reflected coldly in the shadow of Warren Beatty's rising star. Beauty so outrageous in these two you forget what beauty is supposed to be. I'm glad no one's dared make a sequel, but watch out, it's time will one day come. Just like Mickey's fate.
Not all is perfect in this film. The looping, or dubbing, is awful - a sheet metal noise of monochromatic non-dimension noise that indeed propels the unreality of the surface but also dulls the knife edge of its message, whatever that is. I've seen better-dubbed foreign movies than this din. Perhaps it was designed that way. In a film so full of uneasiness, that could certainly be true.
Were not the Sixties a time of messages? Love it or not, you've got to give Arthur Penn his due for bypassing 60's sentimentality by jarring its viewers back into what they already knew too well - this was the most uncertain and edgy time in this country's history. Sort of an Altamont prediction in its way; a harrowing roller coaster ride that smoothes its rougher edges with just the right amount of post-fifties' alarms screaming in almost every frame. There is no escape anywhere in this movie.
Alexandra Stewart is a bonus - a glowing star reflected coldly in the shadow of Warren Beatty's rising star. Beauty so outrageous in these two you forget what beauty is supposed to be. I'm glad no one's dared make a sequel, but watch out, it's time will one day come. Just like Mickey's fate.