Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969)

An upper middle class Southern California couple, a documentary film maker (Robert Culp) and his wife (Natalie Wood), return from a retreat focusing on personal growth determined to engage in open and honest communication. Their best friends, an attorney (Elliott Gould) and his uptight wife (Dyan Cannon), have problems dealing with their friends' new Laissez-faire attitude. The directorial film debut of Paul Mazursky (who passed away last week), this is one of the funniest satirical comedies of the 1960s. Unlike some other popular films of the era (think EASY RIDER), B&C&T&A remains relevant. Whether it's the Esalen movement of the 1960s, Scientology, new age gurus like Deepak Chopra of good ole' Dr. Phil; we're still looking for the big fix, that someone or that philosophy that will serve as a life preserver in a topsy turvy world. We're bound to be disillusioned but that doesn't stop us from looking. But I digress. Why so many of sixties comedies don't play well today is that they resemble the sitcoms that we grew up with and have moved away from. B&C&T&A, on the other hand, presages the the looser improvisatory style of shows like SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. Wood (looking drop dead gorgeous) and Culp are fine but it's Gould and especially Cannon (whose laugh is a gift from God) that take over the film. The once much despised Fellini-esque ending, at the time considered a "cop out", today is a thing of beauty. With Lee Bergere, Lynn Borden and Donald F. Muhich.