Didn't we all go together to see Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

My boyfriend was really hesitant to watch The Landlord with me, his half-black, half-white girlfriend, because it's so probable that a movie about a 1970s WASP-y white kid becoming a landlord in the ghetto would be offensive. What we wound up watching was a hilarious and sweet film that handled the subject of race relations beautifully.

The film begins with a talking head starring Beau Bridges playing Elgar Enders, a 30-year-old who is still living in his (wealthy) parents' home. He shows himself to be very naive and arrogant, but he's still Beau Bridges, so he's adorable. He might actually be my favorite Bridges, but that's like trying to choose between a puppy and a (really adorable) baby. Anyway, to escape, Elgar buys a tenement house to manage in ~dark and dangerous~ Park Slope, Brooklyn. These houses are so cheap, they are "given as Bar Mitzvah presents." His parents object, Elgar calls them out as racists, and the rest follows.

It's a very funny movie. Lee Grant plays Elgar's mother, a performance she happened to be nominated an Oscar for. Her character is baffled by her son's new choice of profession and she is constantly trying to get him to do something else. 

This film is also heartbreaking and poignant, and if you've had a certain amount of wine while watching it (as I did), you might cry. Ugh, I know I did. While this movie begins as a satire, it doesn't insult the subject matter by not taking a moment to take it seriously. There is tragedy and beauty in the character played by the fantastic Diana Sands. Elgar's go-go dancing girlfriend, Lani, also gets a bunch of shit thrown her way, but it's what I believe is a pretty believable tale of the realities of being a black woman in the 70s.

This is director Hal Ashby's first film, made in 1970, before Harold & Maude. Everything about this movie is fantastic, and I would absolutely define it as a cult classic. It's available on Netflix Instant, so you really don't have an excuse not to just watch it and totally enjoy. Unless you don't have Netflix, but you really should anyway.