My New Gun

Dark comedy, more puzzling and inscrutable than satisfyingly quirky, centers on the ever-changing circumstances happening to a modern day suburban couple who bring a gun into their house. Writer-director Stacy Cochran seemingly has a lot to say about "internal and external regeneration," but never manages to put all her thoughts together (the people in her screenplay talk haltingly, measuring their thoughts between their words). As a result, we're drawn to Diane Lane's lovely, quizzical concern as the housewife to doctor Stephen Collins but not much else. The scenario is intentionally vapid, with these neighborhood weirdos living in a vacuum, but Cochran isn't able to make her sideways vision funny or interesting. *1/2 from ****

I LUV the pacing of this film - it just sails along completely untroubled by the constant irony - all the actors play off of each other with perfect timing and reaction - Diane Lane. Playing the central character, plays a young housewife consistently at a total loss but forging on nonetheless, Stephen Collins is, as always, solidly in role as the witless husband, and James Le Gros as the "Skippy" character is a bemusingly understated suburbia Rebel Without a Clue.

Director/Writer Stacy Cochran is in full control of the film - unusual for a Director/Auteur - and keeps the overall look, feel, timing, and timing of the whole thing in beautiful sync.

Favorite line: Diane Lane in marvelously modulated deadpan: "You're a fishy guy, aren't you Skippy."

Catch this one if you can, it's fun and a little camp, and lot of professional work and performances that are a pleasure to watch proceed through the narrative.

Slight plot about what happens when fumbling wife Diane Lane receives a gun from her husband. Nicely performed comedy especially by Stephen Collins and James Le Gros. A light divertisement directed in the style of the later "Happiness".

I really liked the movie "My New Gun." It is very original, funny, suspenseful, and crazy all at the same time. The characters are all portrayed wonderfully, but in my mind the best performance was by Tess Harper, who played Kimmy Hayes. Ms. Harper was the perfect actress for the role, and she made all of the pieces fit together. This is one of my favorite movies.

This movie is quirky and will not appeal to most people. It's does not contain much in the way of action, there are no special FX, and the plot is down to earth. The film is also mistakenly billed as a comedy and this tends to throw people expecting funny hah hah as in Meet the Parents. This is a subtle black comedy. It's more funny in the same vein as After Hours. In fact anyone that liked After Hours a lot will probably like this too.

There are 2 central characters in the story. Diane Lane plays Debbie Bender a sexy youngish woman married to a stuffy slightly older doctor. I use the term youngish because her character appears to be in that strange zone that is the twilight of youth. Her husband although only slightly older has fully completed to transition to adulthood, is very materialistic, does not respect or acknowledge his wife's intelligence and views her as some sort of a possession / servant.

Jame LeGros plays Skippy a neighbour whos a sort of mid 20s James Dean crossed with Peter Pan type character slightly younger than Debbie... but not much. He's also rebellious - the aging neighbourghood bad boy stuck in a menial job and and still living with his mother obstensibly because he's too broke to get a place of his own but secretly because he has to look after her. Amusingly the Benders both perceive themselves to be much older than Skippy and treat him like the a neighbourhood kid, although deep down you can tell that Debbie perhaps identifies more with Skippy than her husband...

There's a hugely surreal aspect to the film although not as blatant as say Twin Peaks, this is presented is a voyueristic way letting you catch various characters with their guard down and seeing how they behave when they think nobody is watching.

The best part of the film is the sexual tension between Debbie and Skippy as they become thrown together by their vaguely and intentionally hum-drum adventure.

If you like films about the more interesting an amusing parts of real life while exposing some of the quirkier aspects of the human condition and with a crackling of sexual tension then you need to get hold of this.

Great soundtrack too!