Two years after he made Head with the Monkees, director Bob Rafaelson lensed a not-yet-famous Jack Nicholson going ape-beep over toast. The no-substitutions breakfast scene is perhaps the most famous takeaway from Five Easy Pieces, a brooding character study of a prodigy (a classical pianist) who always prefers to be elsewhere. Alienation is the capital theme here and Nicholson gives one of those blue-chip performances: commanding even if his oil rigger whiles away day after day, aggressive when luring in his brother's fianceé back home, and incredibly moving as he strains for the right notes with his distant, now-mute father.
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