TREES LOUNGE (1996)

Cast: Steve Buscemi, Daniel Baldwin, Chloe Sevingy, Mark Boone Junior, Seymour Cassell, Debi Mazar, Carol Kane, Anthony LaPaglia, Elizabeth Bracco, Rockets RedGlare, Kevin Corrigan, Michael Imperiolli, Mimi Rogers, Samuel L. Jackson, Larry Gillard Jr.

Written & Directed By: Steve Buscemi
Cinematography By: Lisa Rinzler
Editor: Kate Williams


A good film but the memory of it never stayed with me as it should have. A cassavettes esque portrait of a man. A heavy drinker who has made his life a shamble messing it up for himself and more often others. Now while there is a lot of drama. It’s not a depressingly bleak film. It has a lot of humor and lightheartedness. Which saves the film and gives it it’s own identity. It makes the film feel like something different especially around the time that it came out. It seems like the movies that were it’s peers seemed to be overly dramatic or quirky so this film was a nice surprise reaching that middleground.

The film is a family affair as Buscemi’s brother and father also appear in the film.

This film seems like a homage to 70’s films and definitely has a voice behind it’s direction and vision. Not only was this Steve Buscemi’s directorial debut but he also wrote the screenplay as well as starred in it. He pulled triple duty but also wrote roles for a lot of lesser known actors who were his friends and weren’t getting too much work. The film helped them get work as it showed they could play roles they weren’t usually cast into. Most of the actors get a scene or a moment to shine. In fact David Chase Casted a lot of actors he saw in this film on his show THE SOPRANOS. After seeing how good they are here.

The breakout actor is Mark Boone Junior He could be seen as a poor man’s John c. Reilly as a hulk of a man with a certain look who you would only expect in certain roles but shows a range. He uses his shape as a mask as to what he can really do.

Steve Buscemi has said this film is about what he thinks his life would be like if he hadn’t found acting. Which is surprising considering how many things he had going before he started working non-stop as a actor. In this film his character goes through life and the film is more about his episodes trying to get by. One of his actual successes is becoming a ice cream truck driver.

GRADE: B