America Lost and Found: The BBS Story

“I wonder if you have The King of Marvin Gardens because I like that one too. What? Oh my god, well there you go. That kind of ticks a lot of boxes. I've never seen Head, Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Drive, He Said, A Safe Place, The Last Picture Show, and The King of Marvin Gardens. Yeah, this makes up for all the Christmases where I didn't get much of anything. I guess I'll put that back.”

“I’m going to bring out this, The BBS Story: America Lost and Found. On this you have The Last Picture Show, you have The King of Marvin Gardens, you have Five Easy Pieces, you have Easy Rider. But the film that I’m sort of obsessed by is Bob Rafelson’s debut, the Monkees’ film Head, cowritten by Jack Nicholson, no less. Eighty-five minutes long. And I’ve already picked Hard Day’s Night, Head is a very different proposition. It’s a fascinating film. The Monkees were coming off the back of two massive kind of seasons of their TV show and several hit albums, and then Head was a very bold and potentially kind of suicidal attempt to completely deconstruct the myth. It is a movie about four young men trying to escape from their network contracts, but then there are incredible musical sequences throughout it, one of which– The performance of “Circle Sky” on stage with the double exposures is just like… is just pure cinema to me. I really, really love this movie, and I love the Monkees, so I highly recommend this box set. I mean, an incredible box set, but I really recommend watching the Monkees’ film Head.”

“But John and I grabbed the box set, The BBS Story: America Lost and Found. This film, The King of Marvin Gardens, is a real favorite of mine. It's beautifully photographed, I'm pretty sure it's László Kovács that was the cinematographer, and just it's absolutely gorgeous to look at. It's a very lonely film, very kind of slightly surrealistic, takes place in Atlantic City in the early '70s as Atlantic City is kind of in a state of decay, and it's just it's just fascinating. There's a scene in the middle of the movie that takes place in the abandoned convention center in Atlantic City that is one of my favorite scenes in all of film. So excited about this.”

“And then, of course, I found this, last of the bonus round. Okay, first of all, it has The King of Marvin Gardens. I love this movie so much. My dad, Bruce Dern, his best buddy, Jack Nicholson. The acting is incredible. Thank you, Bob Rafelson, for this incredible movie. The shot of those two men on horseback on the beach, it’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever seen in a movie. But also, didn’t know, Drive, He Said, directed by Jack Nicholson, starring Bruce Dern. Two friends making a movie together, and it’s so raw and beautiful, and if you love basketball, you have to see the movie, but if you love Jack Nicholson and if you love Bruce Dern – I happen to – also an amazing movie. This is an incredible series. I can’t believe this.”

“I knew Jack when he was just starting, because one of my films came out when Easy Rider came out, and we were on the same circuit. And I knew him as a writer, too, and I mentioned his writing. He went, "I'm an actor now."”

“Five Easy Pieces, some of the best. Anton Yelchin watched this movie to learn how to play drunk on camera. I was just watching this. You have a copy?”

“America Lost and Found: The BBS Story. BBS was a group of producers who were making cool movies in the late ’60s, early ’70s, and these are movies that Nicholson’s in, Hopper’s in, Peter Fonda’s in, the Monkees are in. They were aiming for cool, thoughtful stuff, but also trying to be very realist. Get this box set and you can hang out with them.”