Francis Ford Coppola put together an odd little experimental film, from the point of view of a young man just entering college and being on his own for the first time. The world he enters is pretty typical for the mid-sixties, a clash between old conservatism and a liberal attitude toward sex and other such things.

This world falls somewhere short of a mass of confusion for young Bernard, whose energy and honesty puts him into almost constant conflict with it. As a drama, this would have been hard to watch, but the comedic sense of the film leads to a manic reality to which we can easily relate.

"I stink, therefore I am" - just a sample of the dialog in the movie, which would probably be left out of any modern production for fear of it appearing in a review. No, it doesn't stink, but the idea of using it for the irony, as well as the commentary on the current state of the industry, is just too appealing.

What a forward-thinking film, exploring such imagery as dwarves, wooden legs, and the Gutenberg Bible well before they came into vogue. Some of the experiments don't work, such as cuts that repeat a few seconds of what just happened with a different take. The titling of different sequences seems a little irrelevant as well, but that's pretty minor.

This sort of film can be a riot to watch, but the approach means it also doesn't reach too far. When it came out there was a certain social relevance to it, which hasn't completely dulled with time, yet You're a Big Boy Now also wasn't the first to the punch there.