fateslieutenant
A lot of the scenes take place in nightclub restrooms and other bathrooms. This is where the characters snort their coke, and stare at their own disappointed faces. What's remarkable for NYC in the 80s (in any decade, really) is that every single toilet stall and urinal is fantastically clean. I take this as a symbol for the movie as a whole - all rather sanitized. It's not bad, but the plot falls off rather suddenly at the end. Some viewers might not notice, of course, since nothing was ever that worrying, in any case: it's all too well-scrubbed. All the main character ever has to do to fix things is tell his friends he's going to go home and get a good night's sleep. It's hard on a movie when the big question is "will he nap, or won't he?"
gangstahippie
Bright Lights, Big City is a 1988 film starring Michael J Fox as a cocaine addicted newspaper editor.The movie shows him and his friend played by Keifer Sutherland, the partying & the coke that they do together, plus some parts of the past.Apparently he does cocaine to forget about how his wife left him and how his mother died.It has been a year since this has happened.There is also some messed up part with a coma baby, which he has a dream sequence about.The acting is fairly good from Fox and Sutherland.There are some fairly powerful dramatic scenes, also one funny scene involving a ferret, also the 1980's soundtrack was fairly good as well, especially "Century's End" by Donald Fagen.But other than that, the film was fairly boring.It was realistic as a lot of business-types were doing cocaine.Movies/Video Games such as "Carlito's Way", "Grand Theft Auto Vice City" & "American Psycho" will show this.I have never read the book and only heard of the author when he was mentioned in Ellis's semi-autobiographical novel "Lunar Park".I personally thought "American Psycho"(another movie which is partly about business types in the 1980's) to be a better movie.This is a decent film, it was just sort of boring.
emdoub
Personally, I was a bit horrified to hear that Michael J. Fox was trying to perform in a dramatic role, without pratfalls.My bad. He did a darn fine job with it.Keifer Sutherland was almost perfect as the hard-partying friend. The rest of the cast, on-screen for much less time, was also fine. Jason Robards in an uncredited stint as the drunken editor from down the hall did his usual excellent job.Some of the other reviewers seem to have missed the point - this is a story about a man hitting the bottom and beginning his bounce back.One of the best movies I've seen that portrays the reality facing young adults in the 80's in the USA. It's probably got a lot to say about the 20-something young professional experience from about 1975 to the present.I'd not have cast Michael J. Fox - but I'd have been wrong. The rest of the amazingly talented cast did remarkably well - the casting director should get an Oscar for this one. When this happens, one can usually lay at least some of the blame on the director as well - I'll start looking for more of Mr. Bridges' work.The book may have been better - most books are. Deal. Watching the movie without having read the book, I catch many of the nuances, and get at least the gist of the story being told. I've never seen a good novel that'd make a decent 2-hour movie, anyway - it'd have to be reworked to come in under 6 hours.
Rosie Mcfly
Bright Lights Big City A truly Amazing Movie it's now one of my favourite Movies.Bright Lights Big City is about a Jamie Conway (Michael J Fox) a writer who moves to Manhattan and gets caught in the New York scene partly because of his friend Tad (Kieer Sutherland). But mainly because of a reason I can't say as it will spoil the Movie.The best thing about a Michael J Fox Movie is when Michael acts the character perfectly. I know that's what acting is all about but Michael will take your breath away. Kieer Sutherland was just right of the roll as Tad. Vicky (Tracy Pollan) only has a little but the most important roll in whole film you will see .The phone call at the end of the film make you want to cry. (Danne West) who plays the role of Jamie's mother again has a little roll but gives a brilliant performance. The only thing I thought was unnecessary is the bit with the ferret but that just me. This Movie is a good example how you can be so down but you can always bring yourself back up. Sometimes you just have to see you'll be OK. I would give this amazing film 10/10.