I first reviewed Falling Down on May 6th, 2000, triumphantly trumpeted as “our 150th review!” As if that were some kind of achievement. That review is still available in all its poverty and horror. It, like so many of my early reviews, deserves to be replaced, or quietly buried. (So why link to it, right? For the Internet’s sake, friend. For the Internet’s sake.)

Falling Down is, perhaps, the only good movie Joel Schumacher ever made–the story of two men and the compromises forced upon them by life in a United States largely unaltered (certainly not for the better) by the passage of years. The social forces close to Falling Down‘s palpitating heart still exercise a steady, downward drag on this country’s isolated citizenry of lonely, atomized, all-too-fragile selves…and if that thought don’t put a damper on your day, few will. {More}