USA,
1996, 97 min
Shown in 1997
CREDITS
- dir
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Finn Taylor
- prod
-
Johnny Wow, Mitchell Stein
- scr
-
Finn Taylor, Jeffrey Brown
- cam
-
Barry Stone
- editor
-
Rick LeCompte
- cast
-
David Arquette, Brad Hunt, Kathryn Erbe, Cathy Moriarty, Allyce Beasley, Patrick McGaw, J.E. Freeman
- source
-
Sony Pictures Classics, 550 Madison Avenue, 8th floor, New York, NY 10022. FAX: 212-833-7911
-
COMMENTS
Finn Taylor and David Arquette in person.
OTHER
In rough outline, Dream with the Fishes sounds like familiar stuff: Unlikely outlaw/nerd buddies bond as tragedy looms, embarking on a live-for-today lifestyle via the pal whose number is up. But writer-director Finn Taylor (scenarist of Pontiac Moon) manages to make every element seem fresh and the film ends up looking wholly original. Heroin addict Nick (Brad Hunt) (who’s been given just a few weeks to live) agrees to kill Terry (suicidal since his wife’s accidental death, or so he says) if Terry (David Arquette) bankrolls some of Nick’s lifelong fantasies. Once the good times wear off, however, Nick grows very weak and a pharmaceutical stop to replenish his medications, replete with a gun, forces the duo to go on the lam. By the time anything resembling conventional sentimentality arrives, the characters have earned our genuine affection. An homage to ’70s films from Dealing to California Split, Dream with the Fishes is multileveled, from the unapologetic flaunting of all types of substance use to the vaguely retro costuming. Most impressive, however, is the way Taylor orchestrates a breezy, like-mindedly subversive tribute to that period’s maverick films without sliding into excessive derivation, nailing every outré and heartfelt story nuance. Performances are excellent, with Arquette and Hunt slowly filling in a connective gray zone between their radically different protagonists.
FACTOID #123
San Francisco native Mervyn LeRoy, director of the Hollywood classics Little Caesar and Goldiggers of 1933, was honored with the Festival’s first tribute October 22, 1965.
