Atlantic City (1980)

Atlantic City (R) - Review

"The way you squeeze that lemon"

It's Burt Lancaster's and his character Lou's last hurrah in a decrepit Atlantic City, one of the few films ever to be nominated for every major Oscar category (and even rarer, lose them all).  Lou is a former hood now turned nursemaid for an aging sugarmommy, living in a dilapidated tenement dreaming of the former good times that their rundown city witnessed long ago.  A sexy new neighbor moves in(a youthful and lovely Susan Sarandon is introduced by giving herself a bath at the kitchen sink with a lemon) sparking Lou's interest, but when her former husband and her pregnant sister come to live with her trouble follows.  Lou gets wrapped up in a drug scheme with the husband and a love affair with the young woman, resparking his interest in life and crime.

Shot amongst the actual crumbling ruins of Atlantic City by a French-Canadian group, Atlantic City is the actualization of Reagan's Morning in America speech.  The underclassed characters struggle to make rent and keep their jobs and morality as the old and dirty is torn down and the new and unaffordably sparkling chrome buildings go up.  These beautifully nuanced characters must turn on themselves and society to assert themselves, that they exist and their lives matter, punctuated by gun shots.

7.5 Lemon Peels out of 10 (GOOD)