Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977)

	Directed by: Richard Brooks	COUNTRY USA GENRE Crime/Drama NORWEGIAN TITLE Hvor er Mr. Goodbar? RUNNING TIME 136 minutes
	Produced by: Freddie Fields
	Written by (based on the novel by Judith Rossner): Richard Brooks

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Theresa Dunn	Diane Keaton	½
Katherine Dunn	Tuesday Weld
James	William Atherton
Mr. Dunn	Richard Kiley
Tony	Richard Gere	½
Martin	Alan Feinstein	½
Gary	Tom Berenger	½
Mrs. Dunn	Priscilla Pointer	-
"Black Cat"	Julius Harris	-
George	Richard Bright	-
Surgeon	Brian Dennehy	-

Review

1970s dating and party culture is dissected in the most comprehensive, seemingly substantial manner in this groundbreaking, compelling picture by Richard Brooks (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, In Cold Blood, Dollars). Diane Keaton, in arguably her most daring and powerful performance, plays a young Catholic woman who teaches deaf children with passion and compassion by day, and chases love, sex and intimacy by night – in increasingly seedier joints.

Looking for Mr. Goodbar paints a frightening picture of the volatile urban environments of the time, when people generally had worse tempers and better bodies, but it's not a damning, conceited portrait made from a high horse or to capitalise on a trend. It's a consummate study which cares about its characters and their contradictions, even when they inflict harm upon themselves or others. And although some of them are exploitative, the film itself isn't, despite its rawness. It makes no excuses, and it dares to celebrate female promiscuity in a way that had almost never been done in mainstream cinema. With Brooks' artistic touches ensuring you never quite know what to expect, Looking for Mr. Goodbar somehow manages to be seedy pulp and an authentic inside look at the same time – a condensation of the 1970s in all its glory and filth.

Based on Judith Rossner's successful 1975 novel of the same name, which in turn was inspired by a true story. Also with Tuesday Weld, who was nominated for an Academy Award for her supporting role as Keaton's sister; William Atherton as a fumbling love interest; Tom Berenger as a repressed homosexual; and Richard Gere, in an effervescent, oozing performance as the libertine Tony.