Trees Lounge (1996) and Palookaville (1996)
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1996 Scott Renshaw
TREES LOUNGE ------------ Grade: C+ // Wait for Video
(Orion/Live)
Director: Steve Buscemi. Screenplay: Steve Buscemi Director of Photography: Lisa Rinzler. Producers: Brad Wyman, Chris Hanley. Editor: Kate Williams. Music: Evan Lurie. Starring: Steve Buscemi, Mark Boone Junior, Chloe Sevigny, Eszter Balint, Michael Buscemi, Anthony LaPaglia, Elizabeth Bracco, Daniel Baldwin.
Running Time: 96 minutes. MPAA Rating: R (profanity, drug use)
PALOOKAVILLE ------------ Grade: D+ // Skip It
(Samuel Goldwyn)
Director: Alan Taylor. Screenplay: David Epstein. Director of Photography: John Thomas. Producer: Uberto Pasolini. Editor: David Leonard. Music: Rachel Portman. Starring: Vincent Gallo, William Forsythe, Adam Trese, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Bridgit Ryan, Kim Dickens, Gareth Williams.
Running Time: 92 minutes. MPAA Rating: R (brief nudity, profanity)
Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
When two films as thematically similar as TREES LOUNGE and PALOOKAVILLE appear virtually on top of one another, you have to take a look around at the society which inspired them. Americans have always rooted for underdogs, but usually they like their underdogs to come out on top. What do we make of a pair of movies, both set in the Tri-State area, which turn mere economic survival as an act of heroism? TREES LOUNGE and PALOOKAVILLE may be responses to an urban America where desperation is de rigeur, but both films struggle to make black comedy out of bleak tragedy, largely because they take our sympathies for granted.
TREES LOUNGE, which marks the writing and directing debut of Steve Buscemi, finds the erstwhile supporting actor playing the lead role of Tommy Basilio, a man who has lost his job as a mechanic, his long-time girlfriend Theresa (Elizabeth Bracco) and his way in the world. Unemployed and unmotivated, Tommy spends his days and nights drowning his sorrows at the Trees Lounge, a run-down watering hole where the other regulars are almost as bad off as he is. Among them is Mike (Mark Boone Junior), who escapes from his apparently successful business and family at the Trees, and Bill (Bronson Dudley), a lost soul who keeps his cash on the bar to keep the drinks coming. When Tommy finally gets a job opportunity driving the ice cream truck left behind by his deceased uncle, he is distracted by Debbie (KIDS' Chloe Sevigny), Theresa's 17-year-old niece who is looking for an escape of her own.
There is a detached verisimilitude to the people and situations in TREES LOUNGE -- the indulgent bartender (Carol Kane); the barroom conversations where strangers become best friends or lovers in the space of a few hours -- which keeps it just interesting enough to earn the benefit of the doubt for a while. Buscemi gives his characters full histories, and peppers the film with quirky moments like the repeatedly thwarted efforts of one young boy to buy ice cream, yet the payoffs are rather unsatisfying. TREES LOUNGE cruises along, building up atmosphere like a film in search of a Tom Waits soundtrack, but when it is all said and done you might wonder what Buscemi wanted us to make of his cast of not-so-beautiful losers. Although he manages to get you interested in what _might_ happen to them, he is not as successful at getting you to care about what _does_ happen to them.
That's more than you can say about the palookas in PALOOKAVILLE. The story involves three best friends -- Russ (Vincent Gallo), Sid (William Forsythe) and Jerry (Adam Trese) -- all of whom are facing tough economic times. Russ is living at home with his mother, sister and brother-in-law; Jerry has a child and a wife (Lisa Gay Hamilton) who is about to lose her job at a supermarket; Sid and his dogs face eviction at any moment. Together they decide that all they need to get back on their feet is a "momentary shift in lifestyle"...more specifically, one big robbery. While they plan for that big score, they struggle with relationships and with half-hearted attempts to make legitimate money.
PALOOKAVILLE was inspired by a collection of short stories (by Italian writer Italo Calvino), and it feels every bit of it. Director Alan Taylor flits back and forth between episodes like Sid's budding romance with a clerk at a used furs store (Bridgit Ryan) and the friends' failed effort at starting a shuttle service for elderly shoppers, but he never manages to unify them. There is a real lack of narrative momentum in PALOOKAVILLE, as stories bob and weave around the characters, giving them just enough personality (Jerry's sweet tooth, Sid's soft spot for dogs) to make it evident that they needed more. Kim Dickens has a few nice moments as Russ's young girlfriend, but our three protagonists are never quite as sympathetic as they are pathetic.
I suppose that is what makes PALOOKAVILLE even more disappointing than TREES LOUNGE: writer David Epstein seems to assume that we will feel for his characters simply because they are in financial trouble. There are moments in PALOOKAVILLE when its serious turns make it clear that there is a Statement About Desperate Times lurking beneath the attempts at gallows humor, yet there is little effort to show that the predicaments of Jerry, Sid and Russ are beyond their control. In TREES LOUNGE, Tommy at least comes to an understanding that he is partly responsible for his own troubles, and that his preferred cure for those troubles may be even worse; as sluggish as it may be, it does take Tommy on a journey of growth. PALOOKAVILLE makes the mistake of asking us to identify with three men who don't even seem to be trying, who surrender at any sign of difficulty. Yes, it's rough out there, as both TREES LOUNGE and PALOOKAVILLE do an adequate job of presenting, but most of us already know that. Social consciousness still requires a story, and characters with a motivation to make themselves -- and not just their bank accounts -- better.
TREES LOUNGE: 6.
PALOOKAVILLE: 3.
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