The Jerk

Carl Reiner
1979

This is one of those movies that people have always given me a hard time for not seeing. "What do you mean you've never seen The Jerk, what kind of movie fan are you." I never really had much interest, but after catching a few moments of it on television it became obvious that I really was missing out on something. This is that rare kind of picture tailor made to capture an individual comedian's sensibility, and thus achieving an almost Marx Brothers sense of the absurd and goofy, Steve Martin's masterpiece deserves to be the stuff of Midnight screening legend. The plot hardly matters: a coming of age journey, a rise complete with circus excursion and riches amassed, the requisite love story, hubristic fall, and a happy ending - it's all background noise and props for Martin's schtick. If only the vast output of Saturday Night Live movies (with the exception of "Wayne's World" (1992), which is divine) could be half this good...