TREES LOUNGE, the neighborhood hootch haunt of the title, is set in New York (it was shot in Queens and in Valley Stream on Long Island) but it could stand for thousands of local dives anywhere from Kentucky to Kathmandu. Dreams make a last stand on ‘regulars’ bar stools and vinyl upholstered booths. Misery loves company, or as ‘Tommy’ puts it “Everybody’s fucked up, but nobody wants anybody else to think they are, but everybody knows they are anyway.” Tommy is Steve Buscemi, 39, as the hapless lead loser in a script he wrote and turned into his 1996 debut as a director.
‘Tommy Basilio’ drinks too much, too often. Fired from his job as a mechanic, dumped by his girlfriend ‘Theresa’ (Elizabeth Bracco) who is now with his ex-boss ‘Rob’ (Anthony La Paglia), and pregnant (the father’s identity in question), he mopes his daze away in Trees Lounge: he conveniently rents a room upstairs from the joint. When not trying to get high with marriage-miscarriaged ‘Mike’ (Mark Boone Jr. is terrific) or pick up zonked floaters like ‘Crystal’ (Debi Mazar), Tommy, who basically means well, displays an unerring ability to screw things up. That includes his stint driving an ice cream truck, melting down when Theresa’s 17-year-old niece ‘Debbie’ (Chloe Sevigny) tags along and gets too close for wisdom.
It’s a black comedy, and very funny but crucially, Buscemi’s perceptive writing and fluid direction and his totally clued in cast get that having fun with something/someone is not the same as making fun of it/them: beneath the comic reveal is empathy for the lost and desperate. These folks aren’t happy, and they’re ruining chances at getting and keeping happiness, but with pinpoint sketching this acute and players so engaging we become involved, like a witness on the scene, enough to care what happens to them even while shaking our head at the folly. Anyone you know?
Done on a shot glass budget of $1,300,000, the positively reviewed slice of Boozicana escaped public scrutiny by taking in just $749,741. Perfect tune picks on the soundtrack add subtle mood touches. 95 minutes, just enough to spin the bottle without breaking it.
With Samuel L. Jackson, Eszter Balint (great as Mike’s argument-primed spouse ‘Marie’), Daniel Baldwin (Debbie’s enraged dad ‘Jerry’), Carol Kane (seen-it-all bartender ‘Connie’), Seymour Cassel (‘Uncle Al’), Mimi Rogers, Bianca Hunter, Bronson Dudley, Michael Buscemi, Suzanne Shepherd, Rockets Redglare, Michael Imperioli, John Ventigmilia.
