Buck Henry in Person (tentative) Milos Forman in his first American film managed to transfer the technique of Firemen's Ball and Loves of a Blonde-observing behavior as learned absurdity-to suburban America. One of the funniest films of the decade, Taking Off also resonates with hope for its hapless humans. In this film about the generation gap, Buck Henry and Lynn Carlin are the frazzled parents of a runaway girl; they turn on and tune in in an effort to "reach" her. Henry did not write the screenplay but his style of understated anxiety on the edge of the abyss meshes with Forman's own. As Larry, his feathers seem barely ruffled, his daughter's disappearance barely warrants a rise of the spectacles in the face of the larger abyss, the onset of middle age. "The point is, and Buck Henry's enduring look of bemused exasperation explains it all, that even if Larry doesn't understand Jeannie's reasons for running away, he at least appreciates the gesture" (David Wilson, Sight and Sound).