Jerry in the late ‘60s was an artist in flux—as evidenced by yesterday’s surrealist and paranoid The Big Mouth. Between that and his earlier “accepted” classics was this audacious, nearly serious take on coupling and psychiatry. Proof of Lewis’s supreme directorial control, as well as his ambitions.

Jerry Lewis is perhaps the original cinematic practitioner of absurdist comedy, most recently seen in the likes of Tim & Eric and Arrested Development. His anarchic slapstick comedy perhaps reaches its peak–which is saying a lot–with The Big Mouth. This movie needs to be seen to be believed.