DIANE KEATON IS LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR

year: 1977 cast: Diane Keaton, Richard Gere, Tom Berenger rating: ****

A movie that can make even the most jaded viewer dead silent as the end credits roll... Following the sexual exploits of a newly independent woman beginning with an infidelity with her college professor then escalating into a wild singles scene that includes a hopped-up gigolo (Richard Gere), cocaine and a score of random sexual encounters, IN COLD BLOOD Director Richard Brooks juggles Keaton's wild nightlife, her day job as a deaf-school teacher, and her frustrating family squabbles with style and ease, sporadically glimpsing into her vividly morbid imagination as if it were really happening.

Many films about a character's escalation into an out of control lifestyle will have a message intact, but Brooks brings the viewer so close to the madness it all seems normal somehow, making the odyssey more energetically adventurous than foreboding. Keaton has never been so good, flawlessly mixing determination, sensuality, stubbornness and vulnerability. So matter how callous you are as an exploitation cinema buff: This one will stick with you.