There exists a peculiar category of films—technically proficient, lauded by critics in their day, and enshrined in cinematic lore as “masterpieces”—that, upon retrospective viewing, provoke not awe but bafflement. These works, while undeniably polished and ambitious, often leave contemporary audiences cold, their once-potent themes diluted by cultural shifts or overtaken by more daring successors. Mike Nichols’ *Car…More