Rating: 15/20
Plot: A writer with a 500-page screenplay looks for financing while trying to woo a pretty neighbor. A sketchy benefactor enters his life to make his dream easier to accomplish, but unfortunately, things get a little complicated.
Steve Buscemi looks like either a young Gary Cooper or Don Knotts depending on which character you ask in this movie. Those ideas belong to Jarmusch and Carol Kane in their cameos, and there's also a dog that can read minds in that scene.
This is a charmingly strange little movie, Alexandre Rockwell's look at the independent film scene slightly surreal, entirely unbelievable, and delightfully wacky. And I'm using too many adverbs, and I apologize to both you and Steven King, neither whom I am trying to offend. The non sequiturs with Seymour Cassel's fingers and hemophiliac brothers and a tiny clown accompanied by a guy in a gorilla suit keep the viewer on the toes. With inconsistent narration, apparent lapses in storytelling, characters that don't really make a lot of sense, and a whole lot of lines that seem to confuse even the actors, especially Buscemi with those ever-bulging eyes of his, this certainly is as free-spirited as comedies get, at least ones with a little blood in them. It's all very quirky but rewarding for those who have a particular sense of humor.
And a love for the late, great Seymour Cassel. Man, is he just about perfect in this thing. He can take any line--the sneakily poignant ones and the ones that seem to make no sense at all--and just nail it every single time, just perfect deliveries. He's an actor who can normalize a character's behavior where he steals a Porsche dressed as Santa Claus, and I'm not even sure how he does it. Cassel was always good in everything he ever did, and he's working magic here. Buscemi is exactly what you assume he'll be as this beleaguered screenwriting hopeful, and he bounces off Cassel so well. They even get a chance to show off their dancing skills. One displays some sweet moves; the other shows off some physical comedy chops. Or maybe he just can't dance.
And hey! Sam Rockwell is also in this! Apparently, he was ubiquitous even in the early-90s. Rockets Redglare also makes an appearance as "Guy," and Stanley Tucci gets a funny scene where he wants to pass by on Buscemi's fire escape.
That little clown with the gorilla, by the way? That's Michael J. Anderson, the "arm" in Twin Peaks. So he had himself a busy year. He was also in a television movie and an episode of Picket Fences that year. In case you're curious, he was also Samson in Carnivale, found himself in a mid-80's music video from Yoko Ono of all people, and played Bruno in Tiptoes.
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