Old Boyfriends (1979)

What a curious little film this is, it's a slow moving train, but I thought it was worth the ride. At times it felt like a soap opera and other times like a taunt revenge film. Talia Shire plays a psychologist named Dianne Cruise who sets out on an emotional journey similar to Bill Murray's in "Broken Flowers," revisiting her old flames trying to gain some-sort of understanding of herself through her past relationships. The first 20 minutes is a little rough, but once John Belushi enters the film, as one of her exes still trying to live out his Rock 'N' Roll fantasies from high school, things really start to pick up.

The sequences of Belushi performing with his band are very interesting. Also, the scene in-which Dianne tries to sleep with him is possibly the best scene in the movie. It's a strange film, especially considering how the acts play out, with each one being better than the last. The third act revolves around Dianne meeting the disturbed younger brother of one of her exes played by Keith Carradine. When she finds out that his brother died 10 year prior, a strange Hitchcockian love story unfolds.

"Old Boyfriends" was c0-written by the great Paul Schrader and Leonard Schrader and directed by Joan Tewkesbury. The cast is rounded out by Richard Jordan and P.J. Soles of "Rock 'N' Roll High School" fame. It's not available on dvd or Netflix, but is on VHS and currently uploaded to YouTube (though it's a bit fuzzy, but watchable).

--Popkoff