We’ve selected 10 films by filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich for you to discover, watch and fall in love with. These are films that are true masterpieces and that will enchant you from beginning to end.
10 – What’s Up, Doc? (1972)
The accidental mix-up of four identical plaid overnight bags leads to a series of increasingly wild and wacky situations.
9 – Texasville (1990)
Summer, 1984: 30 years after Duane captained the high school football team and Jacy was homecoming queen, this Texas town near Wichita Falls prepares for its centennial. Oil prices are down, banks are failing, and Duane’s $12 million in debt. His wife Karla drinks too much, his children are always in trouble, and he tom-cats around with the wives of friends. Jacy’s back in town, after a mildly successful acting career, life in Italy, and the death of her son. Folks assume Duane and Jacy will resume their high school romance. And Sonny is “tired in his mind,” causing worries for his safety.
8 – Saint Jack (1979)
Jack Flowers is an American hustler trying to make his fortune in 1970s Singapore in small time pimping. His dreams of building a fortune by running a illegal business himself and returning to the States is materialized when he is offered the opportunity by the CIA to run a business for the R&R activities of U.S. soldiers on leave in Singapore.
7 – The Thing Called Love (1993)
Miranda Presley moves from New York to Nashville to become a songwriter. At an unsuccessful audition she meets James Wright, a promising newcomer. After only a few days they marry but start to quickly regret it.
6 – Noises Off (1992)
Hired to helm an Americanized take on a British play, director Lloyd Fellowes does his best to control an eccentric group of stage actors. With a star actress quickly passing her prime, a male lead with no confidence, and a bit actor that’s rarely sober, chaos ensues in the lead up to a Broadway premiere.
5 – Mask (1985)
A boy with a massive facial skull deformity and biker gang mother attempts to live as normal a life as possible under the circumstances.
4 – She’s Funny That Way (2014)
On the set of a playwright’s new project, a love triangle forms between his wife, her ex-lover, and the call girl-turned-actress cast in the production.
3 – Targets (1968)
Peter Bogdanovich’s startling debut feature is both a brilliantly constructed thriller and a disturbingly prescient look at the rise of mass shootings in America. In his last serious dramatic role, Boris Karloff plays a version of himself: a washed-up horror actor whose fate intersects with a psychotic sniper (Tim O’Kelly) on a killing spree.
2 – Paper Moon (1973)
During the Great Depression, a con man finds himself saddled with a young girl—who may or may not be his daughter—and the two forge an unlikely partnership.
1 – The Last Picture Show (1971)
High school seniors and best friends, Sonny and Duane, live in a dying Texas town. The handsome Duane is dating local beauty, Jacy, while Sonny is having an affair with the coach’s wife, Ruth. As graduation nears, both boys contemplate their futures. While Duane eyes the army and Sonny takes over a local business, each boy struggles to figure out if he can escape this dead-end town and build a better life somewhere else.