Director Martin Scorsese's "savage, many-headed dragon of the American New Wave" (Michael Atkinson, The Village Voice) is still as potent as ever. Cabbie Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro's seminal pistol-packing, insomniac loner) drives through the open sewer that is mid-1970s Manhattan with its pimps (Harvey Keitel), hookers (Jodie Foster), politicos (Cybill Shepherd and Albert Brooks) and other scummy creatures of the neon wilderness. With a ferocious script by Paul Schrader.

Duane (Jeff Bridges) is massively in debt, with an alcoholic wife and trouble-making children, while Jacy (Cybill Shepherd) has returned to her hometown after a half-successful acting career and the death of her son. A sequel of sorts to THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, this underrated drama finds its characters in the summer of 1984, 30 years after we saw them anxiously idling their high school days away, now trying to find emotional stability in middle age.

Jeff Bridges, Timothy Bottoms and Cybill Shepherd star as a trio of sexually confused teens trapped in a dying, dust-blown town. Flawlessly directed by Peter Bogdanovich and photographed by Robert Surtees, with a letter-perfect supporting cast led by Ben Johnson (Best Supporting Actor Oscar winner), Cloris Leachman (Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner) and Ellen Burstyn.