Nicolas Cage needed to get this out of his system, I guess. He never directed before or since, and it's a project that speaks somewhat to what we know about his influences - James Franco, channeling, I think, James Dean, who was Cage's reason to become an actor - and, I suppose, to his wanting to tell this particular story of a gigolo in New Orleans circa 1981. Whether or not he'll make a movie with such concerns, or just another movie as director period, remains to be seen. For now we have this, a melancholy look at a young man screwed up by his mother (and by screwed up I mean by her having him as a man-whore starting when he was 12 years old) and unsure of where to go in his life. It has its misses, and just strange quality about it at times. But it also has life and some weird energy about it that's hard to shake off.
Cage certainly casts with some interest, and more or less he's a good actor's director. He gets Franco to dig deep into his character Sonny, a guy who escaped to the army more-so than really serving from his existence as a hustler of lonely middle-aged women looking for some hot thrills and sex. When he gets back he wants to go legit - something his mother (Brenda Blethyn) is dead-set against - but is drawn back in after a bad encounter visiting an old army buddy in Texas, and when he realizes that his reputation in the quarter of New Orleans he lives in is locked: he's a man-whore, and is undesirable except in his lowly position. He also seeks advice from a boyfriend of his mothers, Harry Dean Stanton, and his mother's current protégé prostitute played by Mena Suvari.
Cage manages to get some really affecting scenes with his characters. One of which is the morning after Sonny and Carol have done some prostituting at a Louisiana mansion (Sonny with the main madame, Carol with some other guy), and they're at a farm and see in the barn a dog that's just given birth to puppies. It brings Carol to tears as she thinks she won't be able to get out unless she makes a clean break. It's one of those highly melodramatic scenes- think Douglas Sirk, that much so- but it works, albeit with some cheesy touches (when Carol says to Sonny "I love you" rain just starts on cue). Other scenes try to be more affecting but are a little more compromised. Scenes where Jewel (Blethyn) does her sob routine in front of Sonny work up to a certain Tennessee Williams style dramatic point, but Blethyn's accent is way over the top. A couple of short scenes between Stanton and Franco fare much better.
And other times Cage is just trying things out as a director, and sometimes things work and sometimes not. He's a little rocky when it comes to scene transitions: we see Sonny's trip from New Orleans to Texas with lots of fast-motion shots of his car driving to Rush's 'Limelight' and it's just silly. And when it comes time for Sonny to really be low in the dumps following the death of a character, as he wanders drunk and meets a gay drug-fueled pimp (played by Cage himself, Acid Yellow, a particularly strange and unerring figure to come at this point in the film), it's met with some mixed results as Franco is good but everything else seems forced or fake. But, again, usually with his actors he gets good work, and a feeling of a 1950's existential crisis comes out of the material that works for Franco to play up (frankly he might even be better than Dean in some cases, perhaps slightly channeling young Cage to boot), and the ending of the film is a very nice twist.
It's not something to rush out to rent or buy, and I'm sure only die-hard Cage enthusiasts or fans of the actors will really seek it out (any die-hard fans of Blethyn out there?). On its own terms, however modest, it comes in with a swagger and heartbeat and does its own thing to some good if not great effect. If Cage has another project he wants to direct, I'll show some interest if not overwhelming enthusiasm.
