The supposed randomness takes on an artificial, movie quality -- precisely the thing that Cassavetes worked so hard to avoid.
Comment
03/31/06
Lonesome Jim (2006)
59
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:87
Fresh:51
Rotten:36
Average Rating:6/10
Consensus: Though Lonesome Jim is leavened by sweet, understated humor, it's hard to root for such a morose, self-defeating protagonist.
Synopsis: With LONESOME JIM, director Steve Buscemi delivers another low-budget gem about small-town American life. Boasting a fresh script courtesy of James C. Strouse, the film begins when 27-year-old Jim... [More]
Starring: Casey Affleck, Liv Tyler, Mary Kay Place, Seymour Cassel
Director: Steve Buscemi
Reviews for Lonesome Jim
Steve Buscemi's third film as a director is a low key affair delivered with a wry sense of humour.
04/11/08
Now that digital imagery (Buscemi's film is another InDigEnt production) is virtually indistinguishable from handheld celluloid, where's the 21st century's own nasty, truth-seeking front edge?
03/21/06
(Casey) Affleck has the presence of a stump and the charisma of mold and Buscemi's deadpan direction only enhances his absence.
04/06/06
"Lonesome Jim" is worth checking out, if nothing else for the performances and Buscemi's idiosyncratic sense of irony.
05/26/06
An interesting but unsuccessful study, although viewers should be cautioned about falling victim to its malaise.
05/06/06
As in 'Elizabethtown' and 'Jersey Girl,' the hero doesn't have to do anything but exist to attract the devoted attentions of a beautiful woman, a sexist fantasy of entitlement as insidious (if unacknowledged) as that found in an old Rat Pack movie.
05/03/06
Fancies itself a black comedy, but there's only one joke, and it's that dark-cloud-over- Jim's-head thing -- and it wears thin fast.
05/19/06
Focuses in on a mother-son connection, rarely explored in films, after a depressed young man returns home to Indiana to start his life over again.
03/24/06
The problem is that a little of this minimalist kitchen-sink farce goes a very long way, and after a while Lonesome Jim starts to dry up.
05/05/06
Refreshingly, there’s more lethargy than awakening here...
02/09/06
Has great relevance to the lost adultolescent generation of today ... but it also flounders in its commonplace and too-familiar concept.
09/17/07
Lonesome Jim is not going to become a generation’s anything the way Garden State is evolving, but it’s a decent sidebar
02/10/05
Another product of the woefully inadequate InDigEnt company, who have almost never turned out an agreeable movie, Lonesome Jim feels as if it's from an earlier time and not in a good way.
03/01/06
The charm is in the quirky writing (by James C. Strouse), offbeat acting and interesting direction by Steve Buscemi.
04/20/06
It's such a joy to watch that we often forget it's basically about people who have lost the will to live
10/30/05
It is packed with delightfully silly vignettes that had me squirming in my seat with laughter.
04/13/06
An unintentional parody of Sundance Hades circa 1996
08/30/09
Steve Buscemi paints an honest picture of working class suburbia, where living rooms are covered with shag carpets and Applebees is the best restaurant in town.
03/24/06
Anchored by dry humor and purposefully understated performances, Lonesome Jim steadily builds in charm as it progresses.
04/02/05
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