God's Lonely Man

An intense and touching performance by Michael Wyle drives God's Lonely Man, a gritty powder keg of a film that plays like an updated west coast version of Taxi Driver, its most obvious influence. Indeed, some may dismiss God's Lonely Man as nothing more than a pastiche but I strongly disagree. The central performance by Michael Wyle is reason enough to see the film—he has the uncanny ability to go from Deniro-like intensity to almost Woody Allenesque neurosis in the blink of an eye; it's an entirely convincing piece of acting and his tortured-loser persona had me rooting for him from the first reel to the end credits.

Paul Dooly shows courage for taking the part of a creepy child pornographer and Tom Towles proves he can do more to suggest hidden depths of depravity in one scene than most actors can in an entire film.

The writing is good, the characterizations dead-on and there are some genuinely unnerving touches that set a tone for mid 90s Los Angeles that is every bit as decayed and frightening as anything seen in the New York of Taxi Driver or Bringing Out the Dead. In contrast to those two films, which are steeped in darkness & the stylings of noir, most of God's Lonely Man transpires in the daytime--but the sunlight provides no comfort or protection. It's a nightmare world of Porno shops and AA meetings where sirens scream on the soundtrack at unexpected times accompanied by the sound of children crying while crack-dealers abuse their customers in sleazy passive-aggressive power games.

A scene set in a baseball-park where a child pornographer peddles his wares (right during the little league game he is coaching) carries a slimy, unsettling edge that reminded me of the fiction of Andrew Vachss in its depiction of evil lurking just under the surface of wholesome everyday appearances.

The violence, when it comes, isn't as over the top or nightmarishly gory as Taxi Driver but it packs a wallop.

Obviously It is not a commercial production. I mean you assume a movie is successful on a basis of the tickets sold. I address my review to the anonymous Mexican's comment written above. What we should judge in a work is its quality and what you call a 'nonsense story' It's actually the plot. The 'loser' you talk about, the main character, represents the weakness of the man within the society. So depression, despair, loneliness are expressing the difficulty of a man in having a role in the society. A movie is usually successful when there are a winner, empathy, a nice end, some nice girl and a nice environment. But it's just leisure, it's fake. The main character of this movie faces reality and suggest a way to deal with it, even if it's losing. Thanks.

This is definitely the 'Taxi Driver' of the 90's. The acting was first rate in this film which makes me wonder why I have never heard much of the lead actors, and even more so the director. No stereotypes or formulated storyline, just gritty realism in this film which is a breath of fresh air.

Recommended

The other poster pretty much outlined the plot, so I will not repeat it here.

Heather McComb is the only actor I knew in this movie and is the main reason I watched it. Because of a previous role as a 14 year old 4 years earlier, it was a bit of a stretch to believe the now 18-19 year old actress as, again, a 14 year old character, Christiane. However, she did convey some juvenile personality and was very good overall.

The male lead actor, Michael Wyle, was pretty good too, and had many quirks and mannerisms that (I guess) are consistent with his coke head character, Ernest. I wondered throughout the movie how he could afford all his drugs with his crappy job.

The movie is clearly influenced by Taxi Driver, and in fact, I was going to call this review "Taxi Driver Without the Taxi". There is a narration that sounds very similar to Travis Bickle's voice and his comments, and the older male develops a relationship with an underage prostitute, eventually gunning down all the perps. It is not a straight ripoff or homage, but you easily make the connection.

There is also some influence by the book/movie "Christiane F." (about young druggy/prostitutes in Berlin) and the director reveals his one-time near obsession with the book in the commentary. (Great book by the way, but very depressing even though it has an eventual happy-ish ending).

Surprisingly, there is no nudity or sex, although some of the scenes are inside an adult bookstore. The whole subplot of the "special" porn movie that Ernest eventually arranges to see in order to locate the perps is overdone and a bit of a let down (it's 5 minutes long we are told, and costs $1000 to see it once, and $5000 to buy). The bad guy is "sure" this is what Ernest wants to see, although the subject matter is never discussed. If I was paying that kind of money, I would want to have an idea what it was about. I won't spoil it for you, but I found the 30 seconds we are shown to be not erotic. Like I say, this major subplot is very weak.

Not being religious myself, there were a few religious overtones and symbols that were not crystal clear to me.

I rate the movie at 3 stars, a little better than average, but this is also a DVD review, and here is the bad news.

The "behind the scenes featurette" is worthless. It is just rough VCR quality footage of people milling around. No narration, no introduction of the unknown people we are seeing, and worst of all, the sound is very bad.

Although there is a commentary, there is no movie sound at all, so you don't know what the characters are saying, and therefore in many cases, we don't know exactly what the 3 commentators are talking or laughing about. Normally, we could just pop the subtitles on while listening to the commentary but there are no subtitles available on the DVD.

Bottom line - Great movie for fans of Heather or Michael, decent movie on its own, and a pricey DVD for such badly done extras.

My first thoughts after seeing this movie was a mixture of excitement and appreciation;after a while I still think that that's one of the best films I have ever seen.The movie is about Ernest,a lonely and suicidal drug user with an excellent performance by Michael Wyle.Ernest is a strange,depressed and mostly an insecure person who looks for a bit of love.he is fired from his job after harassing the daughter of his boss and begins something like a journey of self-redemption when he joins a 15 year old hooker who lost her sister to a gang that produces and sells snuff films.throughout their relationship Ernest is functioning as a guarding angel to Christiane,but as to himself his mind moves from reality to illusions,until the surprising but unavoidable ending. The movie was so chilling and depressing that it leaves you empty spiritually and emotionally;a movie that should have got a better recognition,but yet,it's not too late to get acquainted with it.