Steinesongo Too many fans seem to be blown away
Aedonerre I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.
Iseerphia All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.
Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
Scott LeBrun David Mamet scripted this film adaptation of his three character play, in which three unfortunate inner city souls get involved in the plot to rip off a coin collector. Don (Dennis Franz) is a pawn shop owner going through the motions of trying to better himself, while the volatile Walt a.k.a. "Teach" (Dustin Hoffman) stubbornly refuses to accept his lot in life. Bob (Sean Nelson of the 1994 film "Fresh") is Dons' teen aged protégé, the only one of the three who's not necessarily destined to be a loser.While you never do forget the fact that you're watching a filmed version of a play, the story is still pretty riveting. Mamet sure does have a way with dialogue (and profanity); his "Mametspeak" flows quite naturally from the lips of old pros like Franz and especially Hoffman. Franz does an irable job of being grounded, and reacting to the outbursts of Teach, who is ittedly the more colorful character. Hoffman just commands the screen whenever he's speaking. But young Nelson is quite good himself (why didn't he become more of a star?), believably portraying a kid with some naivety but some streetwise savvy as well. Mamets' script is also interesting in the way that it ruminates on the ideas of friendship, loyalty, and free enterprise.Director Michael Corrente never calls attention to himself by being overly stylish, instead placing full trust in his actors and the material. And the music by Thomas Newman adds plenty of flavor.This is definitely one to see if you're a fan of the cast.Eight out of 10.
Fisher L. Forrest Mamet's plays are usually more interesting than this one. Take OLEANNA for example. Here we've got these 2 guys and a black boy, obvious losers from the start, who plan to burgle the house of a customer to retrieve a valuable coin. This was sold to him at what they now consider too low a price. But all they do is talk, and sometimes get a little violent with each other, especially with the black kid who seems to be double crossing them. What is Mamet's purpose in all this? Is it his idea of a "film noir"? These guys are certainly losers, a prime requirement of that genre, but this play, and the film, is rather tedious despite the good cast work. I am an enthusiastic Mamet fan usually, but this one rather lost me. Incidentally, the only "buffalo" nickel worth very much is the 1918 minting, with 8 stamped over the 7. In the 1960's it was listing at $160 in "fine" condition.
Lary9 I driving through New Providence, New Jersey with my family in the fall of 1963 as a 16-year-old expatriate from the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan. We were relocating to this community because the large corporation, which had employed him as a personnel manager and labor relations mediator for years, had transferred my father. On that day, riding in the backseat of our two-tone ghastly green, pre-Iacoca Dodge, I caught my first glimpse of the dark side of unrealized human potential. This jarring insight triggered a shifting of the youthful tectonic plates of my ‘Happy Days' Weltanschauung and has remained in my memory with a stark, persisting resonance for over 40 years. In fact, the benign hypocrisy I associate with this memory, probably laid the cornerstone of my assault on society's most sacred cows as a student later in the ‘60s. On the street corner, stood an older man of indeterminate age with raggedy clothing, needing a shave and being more toothless than not. He was waving a cane wrapped in shredded newspapers and grinning idiotically at all that ed. I recall vividly how incongruous and puzzling this scene was to my young mind. I asked my parents who is this man… what is he doing… why is he like that? They responded nervously and, I thought, rather inadequately. I don't how they explained it, but I was perceptive enough to know that: a) they didn't really know b) they didn't want to know and, more importantly, c) he represented something that repelled them and stirred their deepest insecurities as adults. Now, as an adult, I know about homelessness and alcoholism… about shattered dreams and failure. I understand the fears that all adults have about the interconnectedness of social, economic and emotional life and its fundamental frailty. We all hope to create meaning and security for ourselves. The old man was an irksome anthem to all the ‘crazy old uncles' in the attic, untethered to established melodies and outrageously adrift from convention… a poster boy for the well known adage, `There but for fortune go you or I.'‘American Buffalo' with Dustin Hoffman (Teach) and Dennis Franz (Don) are two guys in a junk shop planning a theft of a coin collection. The plot involves a rare ‘buffalo' nickel and plotting about a totally speculative coin collection that they plan to rob. Pathetically, this collection may not even exist. The heist never takes place. All that does happen is a descent slowly into a world of plans and paranoia, more plans, contentiousness and self-delusion brought to us by…you guessed it….the dark side; the side of handguns without permits, the side where transient hotels are euphemisms for ‘flop houses', and everybody seems to be aimlessly strolling toward that street corner in my childhood memories, each with their own cane & newspaper flag. In spite of all their pugnacious, animated posturing, it's just another glimpse of those same insecurities that challenge and motivate us all. It's why we all work so hard on ‘Maggie's Farm.' The dialogue is the ‘thing.' It is tangential and circuitous. It seems to lead nowhere. One senses that these are routine exchanges. The Franz character emits an occasional spark of redemptive comion, but Hoffman plays a man consumed by the code of the ‘streets' and he harangues Franz for being so weak. This is a brave and challenging play put to the silver screen but I'm guessing that its dialogue-dense script would better engage on stage. However…bear this caveat in mind, afterall David Mamet wrote it. This film is a sad and stressful ‘black tie' film of the interior and requires a companion mood to suit the color. I was left feeling raw and hollowed out by the poverty and folly of human endeavor. The viewer should dress their affect accordingly.
jglapin Yep, this is a dreary film set in a dreary junkshop in a dreary city. It is the perfect material for the pre-Prozac set of depressed souls. This play reminded me of "No Exit" to the extent that I imagine the characters going through these deliberations and recriminations every day into eternity. Unless the viewer is interested in exploring obsession and depression, it is not likely they will find much here. Mr. Mamet is so good at finding a moment, a glance, an expression and, climbing inside of it, he turns it inside out and expresses almost geometric variations. If he were not a playright he might have been a jazz musician.
