Between the Lines

An odd film. Ostensibly an examination (and celebration?) of the counter-culture from within, in the form of the story of trials and tribulations of the staff of the Back Bay Mainline (a Boston fringe paper) as the '60s edge into the '70s, Between the Lines is soon revealed to be an unabashedly Hollywoodian paean to journalism and the free drink. The various reporters ache for fame and brood about the commercialisation of their craft with cynical detachment. That said, Silver's penny plain direction is surprisingly effective. An odd film.