Trees Lounge (1996)

I grew up in a small town, and, there are a lot of people in this film where you kind of know people a bit like that. It makes it easy to connect with the characters right away, because you've already sort of met them in your day-to-day life and Buscemi did a stellar job of writing them to highlight those qualities that you are going to associate with certain people.

And, honestly, that is the biggest draw to the movie. At least for me. It was sort of a "yeah, I know those guys, we already met a couple of times, and, honestly, I never really liked them."

And that is fine, because they are still relatable.

It's a bit slow, but on the whole, so it might not appeal to Millennials, but for what it is, it's a fantastic film.

***Entertaining study of a 37yo alcoholic who keeps making foolish decisions***

This was Steve Buscemi’s first stab at writing/directing a feature film, which he described as a “speculative autobiography.” In other words, this is what would’ve possibly happened to him if he had failed to leave his hometown to pursue an acting career.

When I was around 15-16yo I saw an older friend, who was 18-19yo, sitting at a bar drinking beer after beer, evidently drowning out some personal sorrow. I knew very little about life in this fudged-up world at that point, but the thought happened to flash through my mind that this wasn’t the way to handle it. (If you’re wondering what I was doing at this particular bar, my best friend’s mother worked as a bartender, similar to Carol Kane’s character in the movie, Patty. As such, I occasionally had access and saw the inner happenings). I bring this up because you’re going to see several characters taking this course of life here.

Buscemi was 37yo when this was shot and the character of Bill is presumably a type of Tommy (Buscemi) in his old age. The first half allows you to get to know the myriad characters with lots of droll humor whereas the second half becomes more compelling as it explores the repercussions of Tommy’s most recent foolish decision. I’ll just say that what he does stirs up the wrath of Jerry (Daniel Baldwin).

Besides Carol Kane there are a few notables on the feminine front, such as Debi Mazar, who was stunning in her prime, as well as Mimi Rogers (Patty), Bianca Hunter (Kelly) and, particularly, Chloë Sevigny (Debbie). Chloë was 20yo during shooting but passes well for 17.

Five years later, Buscemi would have a similar role in Terry Zwigoff’s “Ghost World,” similar in the sense of an older man having a relationship with a teenage female.

It runs 1h 35m and was shot Aug-Sept 1995 on western Long Island, specifically Glendale, Queens (Trees Lounge), Valley Stream (Rob’s garage, the neighborhood streets and the baseball field) and Brooklyn (Tommy's apartment).

GRADE: B