Five Easy Pieces

This Bob Rafaelson movie from 1970 is one of the high points of Hollywood cinema, well directed, thoughful, and with an excellent central performance from Jack Nicholson.
The camera at the start is smart, showing a nice physicality of Nicholson and emphasising his isolation through largely static shots and wide angles. This is then nicely counterpointed with montage sequences of driving sound and close ups of machinery, where Nicholson is moved to the edges of the screen. Patterns like this are repeated through the rest of the film, whenever Nicholson settles on what seems to make him happy we go in among the action, only for his full body and static camera to reassert themselves and pressage his growing dissilusionment and unhomeliness. It should also be noticed that the desert shots, the use of angles among various locations, and the simple static long shots of highways etc (see the final scene) are in themselves simply very beautiful.
Thematically, this film is a Hollywood film. It is the story of a lone wolf, it is an existentialist film of a floating consciousness unable to connect with anything. This particular American trait, frequently in Hollywood, is at least dealt with explicitly, rather than in the corners of generally boring other narratives that permeate Hollywood. The focus on character, the narrative follow of Nicholson and the psychological acuity of the portrayal make this the best you can do from this slightly limited and oft repeated (perhaps in homage) material.
Nicholson's performance thus holds the film together, the camera letting him act in reframing, swooping, and holding without cuts. He does not go overboard, using instead little ticks. Even in moments of supposed 'madness' he is non self indulgently playing an actors role, but rather showing the repressed petulance of a child, the wild ravings of someone more inhibited than any. The use of his whole body is well done, and Nicholson keeps the intensity of character and concentration well in his slow walk and standing gait.
Hollywood around and about his best, if Americans must make films then here is one of the finer examples to learn from.