Mickey One: Arthur Penn

Arthur Penn was known for helming films that were uncomfortably realistic.  The Miracle Worker stripped the Helen Keller/Anne Sullivan story of its romanticism and examined the incredible battle of wills at its center.  The Left Handed Gun and The Missouri Breaks were violent, revisionist Westerns that didn't play out the way that audiences were used to.  And his masterpiece, Bonnie and Clyde, sparked a film revolution with its gritty, realistic violence.  So for the life of me, I can't figure out why he directed Mickey One.  The plot in a nutshell is as follows: a stand-up comedian, played by Warren Beatty, skips town after incurring the wrath of a member of the mafia.  He adopts a new identity and starts to rebuild his reputation as a comic.  But, as fate would have it, he soon is forced to perform and audition for the same gangsters that he was trying to escape in the first place.  The entire film feels uncomfortable and jittery.  Penn utilized harsh, expressionist black-and-white cinematography that would feel more at home in a Hitchcock, Huston, or Welles film.  The plot takes several detours for various flights of whimsy, such as the exploits of a street artist referred to as...wait for it...The Artist.  Mickey One is an unfocused, wannabe thriller that can't figure out that it has been cued off stage.

5/10