PALOOKAVILLE
Palookaville, Alan Taylors sly, loping comedy about three unemployed buddies who prove to be the most inept thieves ever to hack their way through a brick wall, is set in contemporary Jersey City. But the drab, working-class world they inhabit with surprisingly good cheer feels more like a small Italian town in the 1950s than a decaying industrial city of today. The three friends arent hankering to make a big score. As one of them observes, crime is just »a momentary shift in life style» until they can find jobs. Instead of amassing a cache of machine guns, they plan to use toy pistols.
As Palookaville shuffles along toward the kind of sweetly ironic ending that used to be a staple of European caper films, its old-time movie nostalgia and goofy sense of fun gel into something featherweight but diverting, with a skewed charm all its own.
(Stephen Holden)
- William Forsythe - Sid Dunleavy
- Vincent Gallo - Russell Pataki
- Adam Trese - Jerry
- Gareth Williams - Ed, der Polizist
- Lisa Gay Hamilton - Betty
- Bridgit Ryan - Enid
- Kim Dickens - Laurie
- David Epstein
- John Thomas
- Steve Hamilton
- David Leonard
- Rachel Portman
- Anne Stuhler
- Katherine Jane Bryant
Samuel Goldwyn Films 1133 Broadway, # 926 New York, NY 10010, USA