Bogdanovich has said that he was drawn to the material because he had two young daughters, and that inspiration is evident in the final product. Though it\u2019s not exactly a film for children, Paper Moon <\/em>is without a doubt his warmest and sweetest creation. Set during the Great Depression on the dust choked plains of Nebraska and Kansas, it follows two-bit conman Moses Pray as he attempts to deliver the newly orphaned Addie Loggins to her aunt in St. Joseph, Missouri, all the while vehemently denying his obvious paternity of the child, even as Addie slowly ingratiates herself into his schemes and his life. It\u2019s all shot by the legendary L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Kov\u00e1cs, whose gorgeous black and white cinematography recalls the austerity of The Last Picture Show<\/em> but not the tragedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As is only appropriate for a film about makeshift clans, the entire production of Paper Moon<\/em> was something of a family affair. Along with Kov\u00e1cs, who worked with Bogdanovich on Targets<\/em> and What\u2019s Up Doc<\/em> (and would go on to shoot three more of his films), Platt returned as his production designer for the final time, in part so she could secure a position in the union. And well before the term \u201cnepo babies\u201d entered the cultural lexicon, Bogdanovich cast a real father and daughter as Moses and Addie. When the film was originally conceived as a John Huston project, Paul Newman and his daughter Nell Potts were attached to star, but by then they had moved on. Bogdanovich had recently worked with Ryan O\u2019Neal on What\u2019s Up Doc<\/em>, though he actually approached the actor\u2019s eight-year-old daughter Tatum to audition first, at Platt\u2019s suggestion.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Tatum, she and her father always had a fairly combustible relationship, but that tension ends up working in the film\u2019s favor. Their uneasy alliance serves as the fulcrum of a plot that\u2019s otherwise fairly loose \u2013 as Moses says himself at one point on their journey, \u201cWe\u2019ll just have to keep on veering, that\u2019s all.\u201d Bogdanovich was a great student of cinema, particularly the French New Wave, and the fingerprints of the movement are everywhere here, from the ramshackle road trip\/crime spree of Godard\u2019s Pierrot le Fou<\/em> (minus the body count) to Addie\u2019s thousand-yard stare that belongs to someone much older, recalling Jean-Pierre L\u00e9aud at the end of The 400 Blows<\/em><\/a>. It\u2019s her preternatural ability to read people and their circumstances, and her insistence on Moses paying back the $200 that\u2019s her rightful inheritance, that will compel them to join forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These are tough times after all, which is always conspicuous at the margins of the film, as families struggle to haul the whole of their belongings on the side of the road and bootleggers and police alike prey on the weakness of others. Eventually their cross-country swindling catches up to Moses and Addie, and the child must decide what sort of homelife she wants for herself, and the father what sort of parent he wants to be. There is a ride into the sunset of sorts ahead for them, but it\u2019s an ending as uncertain as it is hopeful, as the pathways of families so often are. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Bogdanovich might know this better than most auteurs. Though he would collaborate with several of these people again over the years, he never had another string of hits quite as indisputable as his run from 1971 to 1973. At the time of his passing in January 2022, he hadn\u2019t directed a fiction film in almost eight years. Still, if he never quite recaptured the magic of Paper Moon<\/em> in his later work, it\u2019s the film\u2019s very effervescence, and its adherence to Frankie Roosevelt\u2019s alleged assertion that \u201cwe gotta look out for each other,\u201d that ironically makes it so memorable. To borrow a line from the titular tune, \u201cit wouldn\u2019t be make-believe if you believed in me.\u201d Great films are made on the basis of such faith. So are families.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Paper Moon” is streaming on HBO Max<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/paper-moon2-1024x745.jpg\")
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Addie and Moses exist in a world with two kinds of people: marks and other cons, though occasionally the line between the two gets a little blurry. Case in point is their most comical \u201cveering\u201d with a circus dancer named Trixie Delight (played with impish charm by Madeline Kahn, another What\u2019s Up Doc<\/em> holdover); her idea of refinement is referring to using the bathroom as \u201cgoing winky tinky,\u201d and she maintains a firm belief in the power of good bone structure. Almost as soon as Moses meets her, Miss Trixie has usurped Addie\u2019s place of prominence in both his life and his vehicle. But in one of the film\u2019s most poignant moments, Trixie patiently explains to the child that if she\u2019ll only give her a bit of time to ride her meal ticket to its natural end, they can both get what they want. She may be willing to put out for a mere $5, but at least she knows it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n