Johnny Berlin is one of the most heartfelt character portraits ever made. The main character, a Beat-like train porter, has a bad case of wanderlust, and he's constantly moving all right, but shackled to his job on board a luxury train. His stream of consciousness monologue ranks with the best of them. His stories about trying to pay into his father's life insurance so he can get a bigger payout, trying to sell his liver for cash, and writing a novel about a man trying to roll across the United States are hilariously dark material, yet the film as a whole retains a lightheartedness akin to the documentaries of Les Blank and the early work of Errol Morris.
Review of Johnny Berlin
