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My Favorite Year (1982): An Unhelpful Review

Writer's picture: Amanda KelnerAmanda Kelner

Happy 2024! Here's hoping you and your family had a wonderful and safe New Year. And with the new year comes new unhelpful reviews. I thought I'd kick things off with an absolute classic.


My Favorite Year is, hands down, in the top 20 list of movies quoted amongst my family. I grew up hearing "I'm not an actor I'm a movie star!" It's just one of those movies that everyone loves and if you say out loud that you don't like it, you'll probably catch some shit for it.


Briefly, and Without Spoilers

A junior writer (Mark Linn-Baker) on an evening comedy sketch show is tasked with supervising the show's special guest, an aging Hollywood has-been (Peter O'Toole) and ensure he makes it to the night of the live show, sober. What should be a simple task proves nearly impossible as the former legend gets up to his usual antics. But things aren't so simple and our young writer learns that the alcohol and dramatics mask a real human being with hopes, dreams, anxieties, and flaws.


"The Himalayas!" (Spoilers Ahead!!!)

As I said, My Favorite Year is easily a top 20 movie in my family and, based on reviews, it's a top contender for a lot of people. It's fun, it's heartwarming at times, it's hilarious and poignant, and filled with some very memorable quotes.


The writing, in fact, is very good. Everyone has a strong voice, every storyline has its purpose, it's just a clean story with a lot of good elements.



The way each character is introduced offers great insight into each personality, even with the minor characters. Like Herb (Basil Hoffman). Introduce a character that won't speak out load to his boss, but rather whispers to a coworker to translate for him. So dumb. So funny.


And the entire storyline with Boss Rojeck (Cameron Mitchell) is also very funny and not an overly complicated side story. They tee it up to come to a head at just the right time, and sure it's all for the final gags, but still very funny. The dinner with his parents and aunt and uncle is incredible. That wedding dress never fails to make me laugh out loud.


The entire rooftop scene and the final scene as the show starts are both iconic. Hilarious. Can't not laugh. "I had one line! I forgot it."


The story is well constructed and the dialog is excellent.


Peter O'Toole. That's it, that's the subtitle.

Peter O'Toole gets his own section. Honestly, this whole review could be about Peter O'Toole. The man knows how to fake drunk. He put all his acting chops into playing drunk and that alone deserved the Oscar. I don't think real drunks could play drunk as well.


Also, this role was insanely physical. I checked, and he would have been 50 at the time that this movie came out. Not exactly an old man, but not exactly young either, and that first stunt of him somersaulting onto the desk, correct me if I'm wrong but I think that was really him. And then all the stumbling and falling, every time he did something particularly slapstick-ie, it seemed more impressive.


And, perhaps not so surprisingly, his acting brought out the poignancy in some of the more serious scenes. It's very clear to the audience that his flaws are not without their consequences and you see these moments where you can tell he wants to be better. But he doesn't need to give some long-winded speech and hand the moral of the story to the audience on a very obvious platter of exposition. Peter O'Toole does an excellent job of simply relaying all this with his face and his eyes. A lot of what makes this movie so great is his performance, in both the funny and sad moments.


Me? Not caring for the love story? Never.

I will admit, of all the obligatory love storylines in the world, this felt the most tolerable. It clearly offered a way for Benji and Alan to bond and I appreciate that K.C. (Jessica Harper) seemed to command a certain amount of respect from her colleagues, as did all the female characters. Kind of. As best as can be expected.


Was it an HR violation circa 2023? Of course. But I guess she magically decided she really did like him and so it was okay. I think it would have been better if she had been a little more fleshed out.


Is it just me? Am I the romance curmudgeon? Alright, I'm challenging myself this year. I will find a romance movie or storyline that I thoroughly enjoy. Hold me to it.


Start with optimism, see what happens

I thought I'd start with a good, optimistic movie to kick things off this year. I like the idea that this one moment was among a plethora of good moments for Benji, despite the fact that it was likely the most chaotic week of his life. I think it's a good lesson in how we view our lives. That a good day or a good month or a good year will have its low points as well. And some of those low points may end up being the best moments of our lives.


I'm keeping that in mind as we press forward this year. I'm sure there will be some hardships, and the world may be imploding, but I'd like to think there's also opportunity for happiness and success. Only time will tell.

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