Trees Lounge

Steve Buscemi has engraved himself on my memory, ever since 1990 when he appeared in two masterpieces in a row: Jim Jarmusch’s Mystery Train and the Coen brother’s Miller’s Crossing. First, he was the poor devil who was forced to drag in a drunk and generally unpleasant Joe Strummer about, in a quiet and dark Memphis; then, he was the bigmouthed Mink in the Brilliant brother’s tribute to Dashiell Hammett. Since then, Buscemi has turned into an icon to the flourishing American film movement called American Independents. He has played the leading parts in two of the three greatest independent films; Alexandre Rockwell’s In the Soup and Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (Hal Hartley’s Trust is the third one).Trees Lounge is about the 31-year old car mechanic, Tommy Basillo, who was fired because he had been stealing ready money. His plan was to go to Kansas City and double the money and then pay back what he had borrowed, but he managed to gamble away all of it. He continued to have bad luck, even after his employer and former best friend had dismissed him; on top of which, he lost his pregnant girlfriend to the same man. After that, he mostly hangs around at the local pub, Trees Lounge, or harasses his old work-mates. One day, he inherits an ice-cream van from an uncle and his life takes an unexpected turn.Steve Buscemi’s debut as a director is a partly autobiographical story where he has given himself his biggest all-time loser role yet. It is an entertaining portrayal of middleclass life seen from diagonally below point of view. A story about people from the middle stratum of society; people who lack ambition. People who do not fuss and save all their money so that they can do what they want; they are already doing it, in short they enjoy their life. The problem is that the pleasure is long gone and the only thing left is the everyday life that intensively stares at them. In order to escape the eye of God, they hide in the nearest obscure pub and act as if it was their kingdom. The pub’s microcosm is the last resort where they still can have some control.With Trees Lounge, Buscemi has reached yet another level, and I wait expectantly for his next step. He has already established himself as a representative for an epoch; in the same way as Mastroianni represented Italy in the 60’s, DeNiro America in the 70’s and Anglade France in the 80’s. All four of them are talented actors who have managed to be in the right place, at the right time and made something about it.

Medverkande
Steve Buscemi, Chloe Sevigny, Mark Boone Junior: Producent
Brad Wyman & Chris Hanley: Manus
Steve Buscemi: Foto
Lisa Rinzler: Musik
Evan Lurie: Talat språk
English