Real-life father and daughter Ryan and Tatum O’Neal play possible father and daughter in Paper Moon, a Depression-era con-man drama from director Peter Bogdanovich. The fun they’re clearly having together gives the movie most of its charm. The elder O’Neal plays Moses Pray, a Bible-selling scam artist (think a less deadly Robert Mitchum from The Night of the Hunter) who stops by the burial of a former flame, only to be saddled by the woman’s orphan daughter, Addie. He soon sees that the precocious kid is adept at telling tall tales, so they become partners in crime. Some of the early antagonism between them is a bit forced, but the two are a delight when pulling a con together—able to communicate quickly and adeptly in any situation. (Could that—along with the similar chins—be evidence that Addie is actually Moses’ kid?) Visually, Bogdanovich employs black-and-white cinematography to place the 1973 film in the distant past, as well as capture the barren vastness of the American plains over which Moses and Addie travel. (The great Laszlo Kovacs serves as cinematographer.) More contemporary is the movie’s editing scheme, overseen by the also great Verna Fields, which employs a few French New Wave flourishes such as hard cuts from music to silence. One wishes O’Neal had the depth to evoke the desperation and despair that the movie reaches for in its climax, when Moses tries to con the wrong men, but at least he makes the cute stuff work. Madeline Kahn turns up as a conning dancer they meet along the way, bringing both comedy and a hint of that darkness. Kahn was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars, but the statue went to the 10-year-old O’Neal—still the youngest person to ever win an Academy Award.
(2/8/2023)
