Born To Win

Directed by Ivan Passer, Born To Win follows an affable junkie (George Segal’s J) as his efforts at leaving his seedy lifestyle behind are continuously foiled by various outside forces. Filmmaker Passer, armed with his own screenplay, delivers a meandering character study that does, given its almost excessively familiar trajectory, generally fare better than one might’ve anticipated, and there’s little doubt, ultimately, that the picture benefits from an irresistibly gritty atmosphere heightened by Passer’s use of real-life New York City locations (ie if nothing else, the movie succeeds as a snapshot of Manhattan in the early ’70s). It’s clear, as well, that Segal’s stirring, mesmerizing turn goes a long way towards sustaining the viewer’s attention in the face of jarring shifts in tone and less-than-engaging stretches (eg J’s initial encounters with Karen Black’s loopy Parm), which, when coupled with an engrossing (and unexpectedly bleak) final stretch, confirms Born To Win‘s place as a solid piece of work that runs an appreciatively tight 88 minutes.

*** out of ****