My New Gun

Last updated
My New Gun
My New Gun.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Stacy Cochran
Written byStacy Cochran
Produced byMichael Flynn
Starring
Cinematography Edward Lachman
Edited byCamilla Toniolo
Music by Pat Irwin
Production
company
Distributed byIRS Media
Release date
  • October 26, 1992 (1992-10-26)
Running time
99 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2.1 million [1]

My New Gun is a 1992 American black comedy film written and directed by Stacy Cochran in her debut. [2] It stars Diane Lane, James Le Gros, Stephen Collins, and Tess Harper, and also features an early minor role for Philip Seymour Hoffman. [3]

Contents

Plot

A New Jersey doctor named Gerald buys his trophy wife, Debbie, a revolver against her wishes. [4] Trouble ensues when their eccentric slacker neighbor, Skippy, takes the gun and doesn't want to give it back. After an accident lands Gerald in the hospital, it's up to Debbie to get the gun back and try to figure out why Skippy took it in the first place.

Cast

Production

My New Gun was shot on a budget of $2.1 million, financed from IRS Media [1] and Columbia-TriStar Home Video. [5] It was shot on location in Teaneck, New Jersey, and a townhouse was used for the interior of multiple homes. [5]

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 43% based on reviews from 7 critics. [6]

Terrence Rafferty of The New Yorker praised Cochran's directorial debut, writing that "The assurance she shows in handling even a brief expository scene is astonishing. [...] This film school graduate has a kind of 'technique' that can't be taught. [...] The sort of liberation that My New Gun proposes, and embodies, is the product of a true filmmaker's vision". [7]

The film was praised by another critic for its "masterfully understated structure" and eccentricities, which some considered to be influenced by Thelma and Louise or an update of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House . [4]

Emanuel Levy has noted the way in which "the gifted director Stacy Cochran examines suburbia in a manner devoid of the usually nasty, mean-spirited approach to the subject", and unlike other downtown New York films, it "displays no irony or condescension; yet its quirkily laconic, minimalist perspective goes against expectations." [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip Seymour Hoffman</span> American actor (1967–2014)

Philip Seymour Hoffman was an American actor. Known for his distinctive supporting and character roles—eccentrics, underdogs, and misfits—he acted in many films and theatrical productions, including leading roles, from the early 1990s until his death in 2014. He was voted one of the 50 greatest actors of all time in a 2022 readers' poll by Empire magazine.

<i>Hard Eight</i> (film) 1996 film by Paul Thomas Anderson

Hard Eight is a 1996 American crime film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson in his feature directorial debut, and starring Philip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly, Gwyneth Paltrow and Samuel L. Jackson. It is the expansion of the short film Cigarettes & Coffee. The film follows the life of a senior gambler and a homeless man. It premiered at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.

<i>My Boyfriends Back</i> (film) 1993 United States film

My Boyfriend's Back is a 1993 American zombie horror comedy film directed by Bob Balaban which tells the story of Johnny Dingle, a teenage boy who returns from the dead as a zombie to meet Missy McCloud, the girl he's in love with, for a date. The film received negative reviews.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Chbosky</span> American writer and director (born 1970)

Stephen Chbosky is an American film director, screenwriter, and author. He is best-known for writing the bestselling coming-of-age novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower (1999), as well as for writing and directing the 2012 film adaptation of the book. Most recently, he directed the 2017 drama Wonder and the 2021 film adaptation of Dear Evan Hansen. His first psychological horror novel, Imaginary Friend, was published in October 2019.

<i>Love Liza</i> 2002 French film

Love Liza is a 2002 American tragicomedic drama film directed by Todd Louiso and starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Kathy Bates, Jack Kehler, Wayne Duvall, Sarah Koskoff and Stephen Tobolowsky. The film is written by Gordy Hoffman, a playwright and the elder brother of Philip. Love Liza debuted at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award.

<i>Flawless</i> (1999 film) 1999 film

Flawless is a 1999 American crime comedy-drama film written and directed by Joel Schumacher, and starring Robert De Niro and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

<i>Capote</i> (film) 2005 American biographical film by Bennett Miller

Capote is a 2005 American biographical drama film about American novelist Truman Capote directed by Bennett Miller, and starring Philip Seymour Hoffman in the title role. The film primarily follows the events during the writing of Capote's 1965 nonfiction book In Cold Blood. The film was based on Gerald Clarke's 1988 biography Capote. It was released on September 30, 2005, coinciding with what would have been Capote's 81st birthday.

<i>Boys</i> (1996 film) 1996 American film

Boys is a 1996 American film starring Winona Ryder and Lukas Haas. It is based very loosely on a short story called "Twenty Minutes" by James Salter.

The National Board of Review Award for Best Acting by an Ensemble is an annual film award given by the National Board of Review.

<i>Before the Devil Knows Youre Dead</i> 2007 film by Sidney Lumet

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead is a 2007 American crime thriller film directed by Sidney Lumet. The film was written by Kelly Masterson, and stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, and Albert Finney. The title comes from the Irish saying: "May you be in heaven a full half-hour before the devil knows you're dead". The film unfolds in a nonlinear narrative, repeatedly going back and forth in time, with some scenes shown repeatedly from differing points of view. It was the last film directed by Lumet before his death in 2011.

<i>The Savages</i> (film) 2007 film by Tamara Jenkins

The Savages is a 2007 American black comedy-drama film written and directed by Tamara Jenkins. It stars Laura Linney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Philip Bosco.

<i>The Second Time Around</i> (1961 film) 1961 film by Vincent Sherman

The Second Time Around is a 1961 American CinemaScope Comedy Western film starring Debbie Reynolds as a widow who relocates her family from 1912 New York to the last contiguous state, of the Union, Arizona Territory. It is based on the novel Star in the West by Richard Emery Roberts.

My Life and Times with Antonin Artaud is a 1993 French film, directed by Gérard Mordillat. It is based on Jacques Prevel's 1974 novel of the same name. It follows Prevel's journal of a two-year friendship with Antonin Artaud until his death in 1948

<i>A Late Quartet</i> 2012 American film

A Late Quartet is a 2012 American drama film directed by Yaron Zilberman and co-written by Zilberman and Seth Grossman. The film stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christopher Walken, Catherine Keener, Mark Ivanir and Imogen Poots.

<i>A Most Wanted Man</i> (film) 2014 film by Anton Corbijn

A Most Wanted Man is a 2014 espionage thriller film based on the 2008 novel of the same name by John le Carré, directed by Anton Corbijn and written by Andrew Bovell. The film stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe, Robin Wright, Grigoriy Dobrygin, Homayoun Ershadi, Daniel Brühl and Nina Hoss. It premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and competed in the main competition section of the 36th Moscow International Film Festival and the 40th Deauville American Film Festival. It was the last of Hoffman's films to be finished and premiered before his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip Seymour Hoffman on screen and stage</span>

Philip Seymour Hoffman (1967–2014) was an American actor, director, and producer who made his screen debut on the police procedural Law & Order in 1991. He made his film debut later in the same year by appearing in a minor role in Triple Bogey on a Par Five Hole. Hoffman followed this with supporting roles as a student in Scent of a Woman (1992), and a storm chaser in Twister (1996) before his breakthrough role as a gay boom operator in Paul Thomas Anderson's drama Boogie Nights (1997), for which he received critical acclaim. In the same year, he appeared in the Revolutionary War documentary series Liberty! (1997). Two years later, he played a kind nurse in Anderson's Magnolia and an arrogant playboy in The Talented Mr. Ripley, for which he received the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor. Hoffman made his Broadway debut the following year with his lead role in True West which garnered him a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play.

<i>Big Driver</i> (film) 2014 American TV series or program

Big Driver is a 2014 American crime thriller television film based on the novella of the same name by Stephen King, published in his collection Full Dark, No Stars (2010). It was directed by Mikael Salomon and written by Richard Christian Matheson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stacy Cochran</span> American film director

Stacy Cochran is an American film director, screenwriter and producer based in New York City. She is best known for her films My New Gun (1992) and Boys (1996).

<i>Write When You Get Work</i> 2018 American film

Write When You Get Work is a 2018 American comedy drama film written and directed by Stacy Cochran and starring Finn Wittrock, Rachel Keller, Scott Cohen, Jessica Hecht and Emily Mortimer. The film follows Ruth, a South Brooklyn native working at a Manhattan private school for girls, who becomes involved in a plot to help out the daughter of a less privileged family.

Childhood's End is a 1996 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Jeff Lipsky and featuring Sam Trammell and Reiko Aylesworth. It is Lipsky's feature directorial debut.

References

  1. 1 2 McCreadie, Marsha (October 25, 1992). "FILM; 'My New Gun' Hits Its Maker's Target". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved November 3, 2022.
  2. "My New Gun (1992)". AFI Catalog of Feature Films . Retrieved May 17, 2023.
  3. Oliver, David (2 February 2014). "Timeline: The life of Philip Seymour Hoffman". USA Today. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
  4. 1 2 Allon, Yoram; Cullen, Del; Patterson, Hannah (2002). Contemporary North American Film Directors: A Wallflower Critical Guide . Wallflower Press. p.  89. ISBN   978-1-903364-52-9.
  5. 1 2 3 Levy, Emanuel (2001). Cinema of Outsiders: The Rise of American Independent Film. NYU Press. p. 393. ISBN   978-0-8147-5124-4.
  6. "My New Gun". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved 2021-08-01.
  7. Rafferty, Terence. "My New Gun". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 18 February 2014.