The Hal Ashby Poll

He strikes an unusually harmonic balance of drama/humor/relevance in it. I like Being There fine, but it's more farce-heavy.

Watched The Last Detail this weekend, such a fantastic film.

These days I'm pretty certain its his best.

It really is up there with Being There, for sure. Quaid's naive cluelessness was great, though a little wild to watch knowing where he'd end up.

Being There's the only one of his '70s I squirm through. Sellers' routine gets wearing imo.

I'm here for The Landlord, The Last Detail, and Shampoo tho.

*wearying

I need to see The Landlord and, actually, probably Shampoo again since I haven't seen that since the early '90s.

Being There and Harold and Maude were huge movies for me in my teens, but I feel like I've cooled on them quite a bit. The Landlord, Shampoo and Bound for Glory never really clicked for me, the first two might benefit from rewatches (I don't see my first impression of BfG as a beautifully-shot but rote biopic changing).

Bound for Glory is among the 'less than or equal to the fingers on one hand' number of biopics I actually like. And I'm fairly indifferent to the subject, even.

Finally saw The Landlord a year or two ago and thought it was great. I don't know why I was under the impression that it was less well-regarded than his other '70s stuff, but I well-regarded it.

Shampoo is the '70s Ashby flick I've long been IDGI about. But then it's been a very long time since I've seen it so I should probably reassess. I'm much more familiar with/enamored of the work of Julie Christie and Lee Grant than I was a quarter century ago, for a start.

I had to accept that Warren Beatty was the least cute and least charming actor in it.