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Payday (1972)

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A musician finds his life and his career jumping off the rails in this moody, intelligent drama. Maury Dann (Rip Torn) is a singer and songwriter struggling to hold onto his footing as one of the top names in country & western music. This being 1972, long before the Nashville sound had gone "mainstream," Dann has a new Cadillac and a small entourage to show for his efforts, but most of his shows are one-nighters at beer-soaked honky tonks in the Deep South. Onstage Maury Dann comes off as a

R, 1 hr. 42 min.

Drama, Classics

Don Carpenter

Jan 8, 2008

Cast

All Critics (6) | Top Critics (1) | Fresh (4) | Rotten (1) | DVD (1)

The movie is a fascinating character study, but it's a long, dark, unhappy trip to the end.

January 13, 2008 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

...the kind of film that's easy to admire but really hard to like.

January 13, 2008 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

Outstanding study of self-destructive country singer

October 28, 2005 Comment
Film Journal International

Rip Torn gives one of the great unsung film performances in a somber -- but never solemn -- portrait of self-destruction.

November 23, 2003 Comment
Tyler Morning Telegraph (Texas)
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Payday

Rip Torn is fucking amazing in this flick. I have always appreciated him, but felt it was sad that most people will remember him for Men in Black and Dodgeball (which he was funny in, but, still..) because you see him in a performance like this. The script is pretty interesting but takes some dumb, movie cliche turns

January 30, 2009
tsigur
Tim Sigur

Super Reviewer

A feeling very close to exhaustion, a kind of psychic emptiness, pervades this film.

July 30, 2009
robfearon

Super Reviewer

    1. Maury Dann: You only go through this life once. You might as well do it in a Cadillac.
    – Submitted by Jack D (4 months ago)

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