Trees Lounge (1996)

Tommy: "What do you mean do I have any friends?"

By Steve Buscemi
With Steve Buscemi, Mark Boone Junior and Chloë Sevigny

I wanted to see Trees Lounge for about a month but it's only yesterday, when I was watching Oh Boy (2012) that I remembered about Trees Lounge and decided I should see it soon.

Tommy is unemployed and spends his days in a bar. He has various happenings with a wide range of friends and foes but he always returns back to the bar. When his uncle Al dies of a heart attack while driving his ice cream truck, Tommy decides to drive the truck in order to live. But things never seem to go perfectly right for Tommy as he multiplies the dangerous decisions while fencing with bad luck.

Trees Lounge doesn't have the gritty bar atmosphere of a Barfly (1987), for example, but it still deals mostly from the static stand point where everything evolves from or in the Trees Lounge, the bar that is. When it comes to the slow, yet darkly comical or satirical storyline and photography, it reminded me of Laitakaupungin valot (2006) (Lights in the Dusk). There is this very dark lurking humor in every scene and without necessarily provoking any laughter, the movie still qualifies as a comedy.

Tommy is a poor anti-hero for whom nothing works out and for whom we still feel something, despite never making any move to make his life better. The cast is really good, many high profile actors of the 90's appearing, although, I have a personal thing for Chloë Sevigny and she was simply stunning here. I was a bit disturbed by the age difference in the relationship but it seemed to fit perfectly with the character of Tommy and where the film was heading.

Sadly, I think the movie lacked a really memorable scene or theme, I felt like it didn't expose everything it could have. Maybe this was on purpose and maybe it's just me as it is the exact same way I felt after watching Oh Boy (2012) which had quite a lot of common themes and characters.

I liked: Good actors. Darkly funny. Chloë Sevigny.

I disliked: Lacked punch or memorable moments.

72/100
The kind of movie you wouldn't regret seeing, while not necessarily being the one you'd recommend first.