Reviews by
midnight cowboy review/analysis #10: scribbage scene analysis
if i watched midnight cowboy two days in a row don’t judge me ok? ok maybe judge me a little bit. this is probably abnormal behavior buuut i did say in my last review i was gonna give it a proper rewatch. so here’s the things for today -even though i always know what’s coming the part of the ending where the camera just holds on joe when he’s talking about getting a real job in florida and the subsequent zoom out still makes me feel really really terrible. -i love the whole scene where joe and shirley are playing scribbage. there’s the whole thing with how they’re both nude but shirley has the iconic fur coat on which i think could symbolize not just her high status but also how she’s not as vulnerable as joe (who is on the opposite end of living, and also in this sequence shirley is holding a lot of power of him) and there’s a lot of her like…teasing and emasculating him, like when she talks about “a policeman without his stick” and stuff like that. i really like brenda vaccaro’s performance in this, she’s pretty charming. fond of some of the little facial expressions she makes like this sort of bemused one she gives when she sees joe thinks you spell “money” “MONY”. and probably most notably is this is a moment when the film’s queer subtext might come into play for some with her directly questioning joe’s sexuality. it is interesting that he can only get it up after he needs to essentially prove his heterosexuality to her (and perhaps himself?) like yes I do think the drugs/him being worried about rico likely played a role in it, but I don’t think that whole elephant in the room can be denounced. and the subsequent sex they have is interesting because it’s like this painful looking thing, she’s digging her nails into his back and there’s the scribbage cubes being marked into it. but there’s also this like triumphant music playing which feels kinda like a juxtaposition in a sense?? (writing this at 1 am bear with me and my poor analysis) but the way i see it it’s like even though it’s sorta like this more intense experience than I think joe was anticipating it’s still sort of this victory for him. it’s when he starts to believe that his whole fantasy might actually work out. i like that the track that plays during that scene is titled “joe buck rides again” like huh is that a little double entendre there? feels like it. though ultimately i must confess that it is most likely my fondness for this scene comes from the fact that I simply find brenda vaccaro to be very pretty in this, and she has a wonderful voice. well then, goodnight everyone. i should have probably started this movie earlier in the night but I got distracted with stuff.
midnight cowboy review/analysis 8: some technical appreciation
first midnight cowboy log of 2026! i was gonna rewatch one this month either way because i watched it for the first time February uhhh 19th of last year? and i think that day calls for a rewatch if i have the time. but anyways everyone and everything have been conspiring to get me to rewatch this movie. i missed my boys okay? also: possible good news. i have the slightest suspicion that i coulddddddd be seeing this in a theater next month? no the schedule hasn’t been announced yet but they’re gonna be showing some best picture winners i heard. so i’m keeping an eye out. okay on to something about the movie. -there’s a few shots i really love in this. some of them being the dissolve shots during the trip/high sequence of the party like when joe’s gotten all high and you see the crossfading images of the partygoers. especially the one of shirley and then the one of rico lighting a cigarette. super cool shots. also like the cut between joe walking out of shirley’s apartment and rico in the apartment because it’s framing them both from the back. so the shots kind of parallel each other i think? and it’s an interesting juxtaposition between the luxury and glamour of shirley’s apartment and just her high status in general and then the conditions joe and rico live in which are on the low end of society. -also don’t know if i’ve ever talked about how much i love the editing in this. like yeah i like surreal/flashy editing and this has quite a bit of it. i know some people have their complaints about the more uhhh stylized bits but honestly i like them all. like the flashbacks i think are incorporated very well. they’re oftentimes dreamlike (or even nightmarish) but the way they fit into scenes often feels like they’re intruding upon a present moment. like we’re getting hints of why joe is doing what he’s doing in the present by seeing bits of his past. other notable highlights are the channel changing sequence (one of the first scenes i took note of when i was first watching, upon rewatches i’m not just like “hey this looks cool” but i think it’s commenting on the commodification of sex? or something. advertising shows up a lot in this movie. but i think there’s definitely a connection between showing all the images on the tv + joe and cass having sex) , the subway chase sequence w/the black and white fantasies of joe catching rico (i think i mentioned this before but the cuts between joe realizing he’s been scammed and the flashbacks interspersed in there i think shows how he feels like he’s lost control over things) and of course the party scene. also like how some of the audio is edited in this film. there’s a bit where joe and rico are the phone booth when rico’s calling o’daniel and like it’s a standard phone call shot but it cuts to the hotel and joe and rico going up the elevator and you hear the rest of the phone call. i just think that’s a cool little thing they did, like i know some other movies have done that but i really do like when movies do that it’s an interesting way to keep things moving. those two were more on the technical analysis side of things, but they’re important to me.
midnight cowboy analysis/review #6: analyzing the costuming a bit
SPOILERS AHEAD the second part of my birthday double feature! as expected, this was one rough double bill emotionally. i mean going from one film where the last like 20 minutes or so make me feel real bad to another film that…makes me feel the same way. yeesh. but anyways, i really do love this film. if you couldn’t tell from the super detailed reviews i do on it nearly every week. i’m really glad this year i’ve gotten to find other folks who love this movie. and that i’ve gotten to introduce some folks to this movie for the first time. it’s been great getting to analyze this film and discuss it with people these past few months. anyways, on to the tradition of writing a few words on random observations i made about this film. -this is a movie where even the credits make me bummed out. like after watching this guy insist on being called his real name for the entire movie, not even the credits can do that. like damn. :/ (also remind me to write this in my list of review ideas: the use of names and how it relates to the film’s themes) -longer spiel. so i was thinking about this film one night, as i do every night. and i noticed something a bit interesting about the costumes. namely the use of the color white. now white has a few connotations. symbolizes purity, cleanliness, fresh starts, honesty, goodness, etc. now i have the idea that whenever we see a significant character wearing white, it represents the idea of a fresh start. firstly take cass, who is introduced wearing white. this is early on in joe’s time in new york, and he hasn’t been introduced to how harsh and cutthroat it can be yet. he’s still relatively hopeful. and when cass invites him into her penthouse, he sees this as a good moment to get the ball rolling on his dreams. so like, a fresh start. however as we all know, the tables turn on him and things don’t work out how he thought with that arrangement. in the scene where they talk after sex and joe ends up giving her money, cass wears a black dress. which is commonly seen as the antithesis to white. i haven’t worked out this fully yet, but i think you could make a case for black symbolizing the inverse of the idealized promise: the harsh truth and reality of what’s going on. and this is the first time joe starts to realize things aren’t going to go as he thought. next character we see who wears white is rico. he wears the color on two instances, first being his introductory scene where he pulls the con on joe. he’s promising joe new management, giving him the opportunity for a fresh start (at least that’s how it seems to joe). also white represents honesty, as i’ve said. and in this scene rico is putting on an act to fool joe, so he’s trying to appear trustworthy and honest despite the fact that he’s lying. i noticed sort of that the shade of white on his pants differs a bit from the shade of his jacket: perhaps a clue that the businessman-like persona he’s putting on in this moment is false. also notable is the use of the color red: the color of his shirt he wears underneath the white jacket. red sometimes represents danger, telling you to stop or warning you. so in this case the little bit of red in the costuming could symbolize how the danger of the situation that joe fails to notice is being covered up by the illusion of safety and truth. the second instance where rico is seen in a white outfit is the florida fantasy, where his entire outfit (and also the outfits of a lot of the women, and a lot the scenery itself) is white. it makes sense this is where we see white used the most: because florida is this magical promised land of sorts to rico, and he believes that it will be a fresh start for him (and joe!) when they get there. so having this color dominate this idealized fantasy sequence makes a lot of sense. last character to talk about is shirley. she’s introduced at the party wearing white. and as we find out soon enough, she’s someone who wants to be joe’s client. and after everything that’s happened, this is a good thing for joe! things might go right for him this time. and stood against the dark environment of the loft and the other partygoers dressed in darker clothing in some of the large group shots, the camera draws attention to her as if she was a beacon of hope for these guys. also notable how her wearing all white at the party sort of contrasts with rico wearing all black. perhaps this symbolizes the choice joe has to make by the end: to choose the tempting, safe option that he thinks he wants or the option that might be more risky but is ultimately (to me) the one he needs. we see shirley wearing white again after her and joe have sex and she pays him: a notable contrast from cass’s scene, where she wears black post-coitus. in this case, joe has gotten what he wanted out of this scenario: his client actually paid him this time! and it looks like things might be looking up for him and rico for once. (well, as we know things don’t really go as he planned even then…) wow that was a really long one! sorry. and if you made it this far…congrats. stay tuned for the next one.
midnight cowboy review/analysis #4: why do i watch this movie so much
well hello it’s been a while huh? your resident midnight cowboy enjoyer is back. well i didn’t really leave here. i watched two other movies today. i mean i’m back to reviewing midnight cowboy. honestly i probably use this movie the same way some people use Paint Drying on here, i mean every time i watch this i Watch It yknow. But still. Holy mother of yap. i know i said i would watch it once a week at least but i skipped last week…watched something more in line with the Halloween Spirit instead. so i simply didn’t have time! also because that night i took too strong a dose of sleep medicine and blacked out fairly quickly. i wouldn’t have been able to sit through another movie anyways. enough about that! sometimes i wonder why this is the movie my brain has decided to latch onto. i mean it’s unrelentingly bleak at times, grimy, sometimes disturbing i mean hell some of the nightmare sequences feel like a horror movie to me! but there’s something about it that keeps drawing me in. perhaps it’s that there’s so much to talk about and analyze in this. or perhaps it’s the fact that I genuinely think joe buck and rico rizzo are two of my favorite, if not my two favorite characters ever committed to celluloid. i mean i just feel very strongly about them! i really do. such well-performed, interesting guys. they’re what keeps me coming back to this. is it a good idea for me to keep coming back to a film like this? probably not. but what do I know? small thing that sticks out to me: rizzo playing the xylophone in the pawn shop when joe sells his radio. that really adds something to the scene. and on to our longer Daily Observation: in a film that has plenty of bombastic, frenetic sequences such as the subway chase or the florida daydream, i’ve always found one of the film’s most poignant scenes to be one of its most subdued moments. in fact it’s not really the Scene specifically i think about, but rather an acting choice, a simple gesture made within it. it’s the brief few seconds when, before heading into the party, joe quickly uses his shirt to wipe off the sweat on rico, who leans his head against joe’s bare chest and for a moment wraps his arm around him. the action lasts for only a few seconds, but it’s a moment that constantly hits me square in the chest. there’s just something that seems very desperate and heartbreaking about it, something deep and emotional that simply remains unspoken in part because they Can’t really say anything about it. and if you take the queer reading of the film (such as i do) there’s this other layer added to this scene i feel like, one of this weird sort of repressed longing coming to the surface. all in all, devastating couple of seconds. hate what this film does to me. but i love it. like i said, this film has just latched onto my heart and soul.
midnight cowboy review/analysis #2: a defense of the party scene
well…another day another midnight cowboy rewatch. this time on VHS! i intend to be like the midnight cowboy girl on letterboxd (you know like the 127 hours girl who’s popular on the lb subreddit for loving that movie? yeah i wanna be kind of like that but for midnight cowboy because i loooove this movie. despite what it does to me) so hopefully i will earn that title soon! planning on making this one my 200th watch of the year so I’ll probably be revisiting this one very very soon… okay so. today’s observation! well, better bring it up. i will defend the party scene with my life. i know people say it’s out of place or drags or is unnecessary but it’s honestly one of my favorite scenes in the whole movie. it is gorgeous. i love the music that plays during it and the camera footage/weird movie artsy project parts included in it, it is just so cool. so many good little bits in it too. “guess who i am! it’s me! :D” yeah i love that part. also i think another reason why i find it necessary or at least interesting is how it shows the two sort of contrasting coping mechanisms or whatever you call it joe and rico have. joe is very much seeking attention from people at the party especially physically (like with shirley) and rico is basically just aggressively rejecting any sort of attention put towards him by the partygoers. idk there’s something about the contrast there…joe getting high and having what seems to be a pretty good time and kinda letting loose a bit and then the cut to rico just having like. a real shit time looking Not Great is. yeah it gets to me a bit. also brenda vaccaro does a pretty good supporting role in this whole part of the film, love her in this. tldr: I love the midnight cowboy psychedelic party scene
midnight cowboy review/analysis 9: the motif of advertising in the film
prepping for something. i missed some parts of this because it was being streamed but that’s okay. i don’t know how i manage to be at almost twenty watches of this film. today’s analysis is about one of my favorite motifs in the film which is the use of radio/ads. i think it’s like part of the film’s social criticism and stuff because both joe and rico are being sold a lie based on their idealized location (NY and florida), i talked about how the florida posters in rico’s apartment represent his idealized view of the state before. but i also think joe’s radio is an interesting plot device because it tells him what he Wants to hear a lot. like that he’s special, women want him, etc, etc, etc. and as he loses his naivety and innocence he ends up losing the radio which was like his sort of connection to the rest of the world and his escape from things. sad stuff! before that they dance to a florida orange juice ad which almost seems to mock their plight. there’s plenty of focus on other forms of advertising as well (the tv scenes could also fit into this) like a very unsubtle sign saying “world’s largest hot dog”, a neon sign of the sun the camera holds on after the florida fantasy gets ruined, and perhaps one of the most striking shots: joe and rico walking past a billboard that advertises what I think was a florida airline, saying something about having steak for dinner. these kinds of like visual symbols are part of why i love the film so much.
midnight cowboy review/analysis 7: false personas and identity
SPOILERS AHEAD my first log of this this month! i know i know. i’m later than usual. turns out i was in a bad state mentally these last few weeks. i mean one week i got really bummed out about the state of cinema and the other weeks i got bummed out about everything else. but since i was feeling slightly less unstable this week i decided i was overdue for a rewatch! well i did end up shaking and stifling sobs at the end as I was rewinding the VHS tape i watched this viewing on. not even my most emotional reaction to this movie. i think we can kind of consider this a December film. not a Christmas movie but broadly a December movie. because there’s snow in it and it’s cold and that’s important to the plot. so thus i have decided. okay so today’s observation: funny how coincidentally this and my other favorite movie (mulholland drive, which i also think is an amazing film even if i don’t talk about it as much as this one.) have two kind of similar shots. the palm tree ones. granted, the effect is different technically (MD being a dissolve shot or whatever you call it, while this one frames it through the reflection of a bus window) but they both have the image of a character having the image of palm trees overlaid against them. i also think in a sense the image of the palm trees in both cases represents the idea of both films focusing on the concept of dreams in one way or another. mainly, this idealized “American Dream” of sorts. what with the palm trees also being a symbol of a location within both films that is seen as this idealized fantasy place by the characters. i mean, the nature of having the scenery being basically overlaid on top of the final image of this film gives it the feeling that in a way, this was all just another dream that’s fading away. okay you get another one since it’s been a while. i am feeling ever so generous. -i like how this film focuses on the idea of false personas, or characters not being what they seem. like it’s most apparent with joe: his hypermasculine cowboy persona being a shield he uses to deal with his own trauma. it’s interesting that on multiple occasions he states he’s “not a for real cowboy” like, he knows the act is just that, an act. but he still holds onto it. i’d also say that the “stud” part of him is also a persona of sorts: something about using hypersexuality as a coping mechanism for sexual trauma. rico is introduced to us in a false persona as well: the potential “manager” for joe, relatively more well-dressed and seeming to want to get joe on the right track. of course, we know, it’s a ruse. the interesting thing is we are introduce to both joe and rico in their false personas: but it’s incredibly easy to spot the lie. joe’s cowboy persona doesn’t really fool anyone or have the effect he’d like it to (see him giving the one-liner of sorts in the mirror when he’s like rehearsing how he’s going to walk out of his job VS how the whole thing actually goes down) and it’s basically shown to us that rico manages only to get away with pulling one over on joe because of how naive he is. and then rico goes from being someone who joe thinks can help him, to a dirty street rat, and ultimately to joe’s closest friend after everything. but other characters have different sides to them, too. they’re not what they seem from first glance either. you could say this for cass, because she’s introduced as just another new yorker, albeit one that actually wants joe’s services. however it’s also hinted at that she’s in a similar line of work as joe, judging by the conversation she has on the phone. and take o’daniel, who we and joe initially are led to believe is someone that specializes in being a “manager” for people like joe. but then it’s revealed that he’s actually a religious fanatic preacher of sorts. and shirley from first glance seems to be just another face at the party: it’s not revealed that she’s a wealthy socialite until a bit later on, perhaps when we see her elaborate jewelry and fur coat. it’s interesting that for characters like shirley, rico, and o’daniel, it’s their apartment that reveals things about them. it’s the lavishly decorated apartment of shirley’s that clues us in on how well-off she is (and in turn, how good this is that joe’s made a success in getting her to buy his services). for rico, it’s when joe finally sees how bad the x-flat looks that he seems to fully realize the actual state this man has been living in. and for o’daniel, it’s the hidden light-up jesus statue on the bathroom door of his room that reveals his true nature. hmm. i got a lot to say. i mean, it has been a while. but i’ll leave my observations at that. I’ll probably see you again for one of these in just a few days. i was thinking of doing one of these but it’s sort of my free thoughts so instead of writing like a thought-out essay or whatever i just write my thoughts on the movie as they come. would that be interesting? anyways, you have a nice night.
midnight cowboy review/analysis #5: what’s with the toy rat?
your weekly midnight cowboy rewatch is here. this was playing on a live tv channel at midnight coincidentally and even though i missed like the entire opening (i was trying to find a good stopping point on my book) i am still counting this! even if i do usually log this on Fridays. random offhand observation: i need to find out if the florida orange juice jingle was a real jingle. perhaps i should listen to the criterion commentary to see what new insights i can gain main observation for today regards how i think it’s interesting that in a sense florida is to rico what new york was to joe, a Promised Land of sorts where all your troubles go away and everything is good forever. i mean obviously joe is incredibly naive but i feel like in a sense rico’s had the idea of florida as a paradise sold to him in a similar way. there’s some interesting parallels between how joe gets his ideas of new york from the media like his radio (note the talk show he listens to where the women talk about their ideal man) and how the only mentions of florida we get not from rico directly are from advertisements (the posters in the x flat, the radio ad) again. refer to the review i wrote where i talk about the daydream scene for more thoughts on this kind of. okay i am writing this at 2 am it ain’t gonna be good. -okay i got one more since that wasn’t all that interesting. let’s talk about the rubber rat scene. you know where joe’s in the diner and he sees that weird mom rub a toy rat all over herself and her kid? first thing i noticed was how he spills ketchup on the crotch of his pants: the red has an eerie resemblance to blood, so i think there’s some intentional parallels to sexual violence there (a major part of joe’s backstory) i got two interpretations of this from people. first is that the scene represents joe’s childhood trauma and how he was sexually abused/groomed in his youth. the mom rubbing the rat on the kid could parallel how joe’s maternal figure (his grandma) would sometimes be creepily physical with him as a kid. the other interpretation, and the one i leaned towards first is that the rat makes joe (and us) think of rico. i mean he’s compared to a rat a lot, and at this time in the movie joe knows him as “ratso” so i think there’s some connections to be made there. and so he’s sort of being reminded of him in a sense. but also an interesting thing is that notably, the rat is fake: potentially a hint that rico isn’t all who we think he is and just might as well be putting up facades in the same way joe is? i actually think it’s interesting for both readings (the rat scene represents his trauma AND he’s thinking of rico) to coexist. i mean there’s a lot of parallels made between how the realization he got scammed made him feel the same loss of control his assault did. the scenes of him running through the subway after rico are spliced in with shots of his assault, and in the nightmare we see the assault again but there’s flashes of rico in there too. so I don’t know, I just think that’s interesting.
midnight cowboy review/analysis #3-mostly about the florida dream sequence
Heading SPOILERS AHEAD hello. it’s me the midnight cowboy girl on letterboxd. my 10 log of this for the year and my 200th movie watched this year! what a way to commemorate this milestone. this one’s been on the mind all week as always, so good to get it out of my system. can’t tell if i would be more or less insufferable if i didn’t have the urge to rewatch this once a week but you know what? i do this for the genuine love of the game. okay, on to today’s observations. you get a couple for this one, congrats -this movie’s place in muppet history is very strange and yet important to me. muppet fandom i may not be in you but i see you. i respect you. ok well uhh that’s more of a silly thing. -something I didn’t notice until someone pointed it out in a youtube comment was that in his introductory scene rico is wearing a necklace with a cornicello on it, which is a horn-shaped pendant that symbolizes good luck, protection, and fertility in Italian culture and is meant to ward off the “evil eye”. I don’t think anyone here has mentioned this but i just thought it was a cool little detail. you know obviously we all talk about how we meet joe while he’s got a false persona going on (because like, that’s a big crux of his character) but I feel like in a sense we’re introduced to rico in his false persona because like. he’s putting on this image of being like a pimp to scam joe, i mean it’s interesting how he’s dressed in a kind of more put together way with the suit and like we don’t start figuring out how rough he has it until we see him again in the relatively more worn out clothes he wears for the rest of the film. so like they’re doing their false personas for different reasons, but it’s still like an interesting parallel between them. -the florida dream sequence makes me insane! like there’s a Lot going on. first off is how (complementary) out of place it feels to the rest of the movie in terms of vibes and visuals, like we’ve been watching this gritty grungy movie with super dark themes and here comes this scene that’s bright and colorful and fun and the editing is a bit fast-paced and goofy and hey why does joe have his shirt off the entire time, what is that all about, oh well that’s a whole other thing. i find it kind of nice in a sense that in this scene you know it’s established that getting to florida has been something rico wants to do even before meeting joe but in this daydream of what’s basically his idealized life joe is there in nearly every scene. which could mean nothing. i mean to me it means a lot of things. but tbh this scene makes me kinda emotional on a rewatch! like in the dream he doesn’t have a limp anymore and everyone is calling him rico :(. and like he’s wearing all white which is associated with heaven in a sense like because angels are commonly depicted as wearing white and there’s definitely parallels to florida being like their heaven (when joe sells the radio the night after that the camera focuses on one of rico’s many posters of florida, which depicts a person reaching up to the sky) and like you know the association that stuff has with death because of its relationship to the afterlife obviously and uhh how rico you know. dies. in fact a lot of that dream scene feels like foreshadowing! like the older women all staring at him as the dream falls apart as rico is watching joe absolutely fumble the hotel hookup seems to parallel the ending where we see a bunch of old women staring at joe holding rico’s body on the bus. i don’t know that’s just how i read it. anyways another thing i noticed more recently was that rico in an earlier scene insults joe’s cowboy attire, like there’s the whole argument they have about it. but in the dream at one point he’s wearing joe’s hat which i just found interesting!
midnight cowboy review/analysis #1
Heading SPOILERS AHEAD had to rewatch this movie because i have been going crazy about it for weeks. love it to bits of course i will never stop thinking about it. deciding that from now on every time i log this (which will be a lot, probably) to write down a random (sometimes serious sometimes nonsensical) observation i made about it. so for today: we as a society have to admit that the scene where joe and rizzo see each other for the second time through the diner window and that one scene in Madagascar with the lion and zebra guys idk I haven’t seen the movie in a while when they’re running to each other on the beach? same scene basically. someone pointed it out to me once and they’re right. also for some more serious analysis: Interesting (to me) how like the more the goal of getting to florida becomes not just rizzo’s dream but also joe’s as well their wardrobes start matching because like. when joe basically crosses the point of no return for them and has to kill a man to get them the money he’s wearing a purple shirt and rizzo wears a purple suit throughout the movie (pretty sure he’s wearing it for most of the final bus ride?) and then of course when they get new clothes they’re basically wearing almost identical shirts.
