If you want to succeed as an actor in modern Hollywood you'll need good looks. Steve Buscemi didn't have good looks, but he more than compensated for that with incredible acting talent. Thanks to few important roles, Buscemi became one of Hollywood's most recognisable faces and the success in acting led to Trees Lounge, 1996 semi autobiographical drama that represented his directorial debut.
The protagonist of the film is Tommy Basilo (played by Steve Buscemi), 31-year old unemployed mechanic from Long Island. To say that things recently didn't go well for Tommy is an understatement - he was fired from his job after "borrowing" some money only to see his pregnant girlfriend Theresa (played by Elizabeth Bracco) with his former boss Rob (played by Anthony La Paglia); he can't find job nor he can even fix his car. The good thing in his life is Trees Lounge - bar where he spends increasing amounts of time and increasing amounts of money trying to find comfort at the bottom of the bottle. Only slightly aware that his life is going down the drain, he gets a job of a ice cream vendor only to succumb to his irresponsible ways and starts romantic relationship with Debbie (played by Chloë Sevigny), Theresa's 17-year old niece.
Based partly on Steve Buscemi's early life and partly on speculation what could have happened if not for his acting career, Trees Lounge gives impression of very authentic film. Authenticity is achieved not only with the clever use of Long Island locations and intelligent screenplay that portrays life in blue collar neighbourhoods; the authenticity can be found in a way Buscemi deals with a serious issue that many other directors would turn into cheap melodrama. His character is burdened with alcoholism, but Buscemi wisely chooses not to hammer the audience with all-too-familiar effects of that affliction. Instead, the audience is only slightly more aware of alcoholism than protagonist; he is still in the early stages when drinking can still be associated with fun. Thanks to that, Buscemi successfully merges serious drama with some comedy and, thanks to the effort of his acting colleagues, makes his portrayal of Tommy quite moving. The audience manages to like that character, despite his pathetic state and irresponsible ways. Unfortunately, in the last third of the film Trees Lounge is not that successful, mostly due to not very believable romance between Tommy and Debbie; Buscemi might be great actor but he simply lacks chemistry with Sevigny, thus destroying the suspension of disbelief. However, even with such flaw, Trees Lounge is very interesting and occasionally quite entertaining film which clearly shows that acting is not Buscemi's only talent.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on June 24th 2003)
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