Trees Lounge

Fantastically familiar characters of resigned barflies reigned over by "that guy" Mark Boone Jr. A small-town tale where everyone knows each other and helps each other out in difficult situations, yet while everyone has given the protagonist a hand at some point, he's never done the same because he’s never had the chance. When we watch a static, life-ruined old alcoholic in one overlong shot at the beginning of the film, we wonder how he got into this dismal state. And in the end we discover we have been watching his story. I wouldn't look for much comedy here, in fact it only appears in two running jokes about a boy unsuccessfully trying to buy ice cream and the protagonist constantly losing a line of coke. Chloë, as always, dominates every scene she's in. The femme fatale of seedy America. (08/11/2020)

In the life of Tommy Basilio, there were probably only a few days when he did not touch a glass of alcohol, but from a medical point of view, he is not an alcoholic. There would probably not be a drug that he would not try, yet it would be unfair to label him as a drug addict. Tommy has a different problem - the cancer called willpower. He is simply a weakling who drifts from nothing to nothing and is unable to give his life order and a clear goal. More and more clearly he feels that something is wrong, but if he excels at anything, it is the feeling of self-pity and the ability to blame others for his failures. Steve Buscemi claimed that his protagonist has autobiographical features and that he had a pretty good start to mimic his gradual decline. In any case, he plays the role brilliantly and he also did an amazing job with the screenplay. He is strong in how incredibly civil he is and how natural the dialogues and characters are, which Buscemi observed when he was going to pubs. Trees Lounge is a tragicomedy, where the director and screenwriter in one do not need to twist and exaggerate anything, yet it still forces the viewer to think. It can make do without effects, and without dramatic situations, and yet you can feel very clearly what he wanted to convey. Overall impression: 85%. (20/10/2016)