Trees Lounge (1996)

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A movie about an alcoholic's everyday life. Watched it randomly on tv, and it's good. It's Buscemi's directorial and writer debut and he did a pretty good job. If you like calm movies or if you like Busemi movies, you should watch it.

A very good debut by writer/director Steve Buscemi, "Trees Lounge" stars Buscemi himself as a bug-eyed alcoholic who mourns the loss of his lover and child. Would his life have been better had he made less mistakes? With whom does blame lie? Can he change? Comprised of a series of sensitively sketched vignettes, "Trees Lounge" mostly finds Buscemi perched atop barstools, nursing booze, sucking on cigarettes or snorting cocaine; anything to escape a life he despises. Elsewhere he strikes up a relationship with a young woman, played by the ethereal Chloe Sevigny. Buscemi's aims may be modest, but his film does well to capture a tone of melancholia and regret. "Trees Lounge" unfolds like a Tom Waits record, or perhaps the boozy laments of a Raymond Carver or Charles Bukowski.7.9/10 – Worth one viewing. See "Ghost World" and Dan Rush's "Everything Must Go".

Just happened upon this channel hopping In the early hours saw Steve Buscemi and wondered what's going on here? Not a lot as It seemed but that's not the point. Just sit back - preferably with a lager and allow Tree's Lounge to charm your trousers off.Wonderfully subdued comedy showing that Buscemi Is not only a cult anti hero on screen but that he has much promise as a director. The characters stand out as they can be related to - everyone will recognise the Bill type regular permanently attached to the counter. Mark Boone's wife also as a seriously difficult woman who hasn't a clue what she really wants, stereotypically so. Tommy yes, Is a manchild aimlessly squandering his life away, for sure It Isn't a good role model to aspire to approaching middle age but hey that's his perogative.This Is Steve's film and he's got charisma by the barrow full to make Tree's Lounge a real treat. That trick with the glasses will work once - provided your not too hammered practising. But It's Uncle Al who gets the best lines - "he loves your mothers", his excuse for his lecherous behaviour on the couch will bail a lot of people out of a lot of trouble.This film Is very hard to track down, 90% of video shops I went to hadn't even heard of It and It's been on terrestrial Tele twice - once a week late- the reward Is well worth the effort.

Let's be blunt: Steve Buscemi is one of the greatest actors of all time. And I say "actor," not "star," because he has re-defined the true art of divulging into character and literally performing so well we come to believe he is an entirely different person. He also has some of the best lines of all time. ("You're acting like a first-year thief; I'm acting like a professional"; "Whoa, Daddy!"; "You should see the other guy!")In "Trees Lounge," his directorial debut, Buscemi (pronounced "Bu-schemy") plays Tommy, a struggling alcoholic living in a pleasant middle-America town. Tommy thrives on the Trees Lounge, a local bar, where he mopes about all day long in self-loathing, hitting on the bartender (Carol Kane) and getting into brawls. His life is an utter waste until he lands a job as an ice cream man and thereby sparks a daring relationship with a 17-year-old girl (Chloe Sevigny). I'd be lying to you if I were to claim that "Trees Lounge" had a bare minimum of character metamorphosis. Tommy doesn't evolve very much throughout the film - in the beginning and until the very end he remains a miserable soul, unable to decide whether he's unhappy because he's drunk or drunk because he's unhappy. It brings to mind the speech by John Cusack in "High Fidelity," or even Mike Myers as Fat Ba$tard in "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me": Are they unhappy because of their passion, or vice versa?"Trees Lounge" is obviously a low budget effort by Buscemi, apparently powered by his own passion towards the project. A lesser actor and director might have turned "Trees Lounge" into an unfunny bar-based comedy in the vein of "Cheers," minus the likable characters and witty one-liners, and presented us with a one-dimensional character who displays all the characteristics of a hero and yet is found sitting in a bar all day long. Almost magically, Buscemi avoids these clichés and reveals a wonderfully wise and observant character study of one man - and although he isn't always the most likable of people, he always manages to remain realistically crafted, and realistically kind - he does things we disapprove of, such as drinking, drugs, etc. Yet we never feel any content towards Tommy. Perhaps because he connects with a vital human element within all of us.Indeed, Buscemi portrays Tommy as a very flawed character, and yet a strangely addictive one. I'm glad the focus of the story wasn't on someone else - out of all of the characters in the film, I liked Tommy the most, perhaps because he is given more depth and focus than the others. But yet I also firmly believe it has something to do with Buscemi's great acting abilities. As a character actor he is superb, and one of the funniest men in Hollywood - despite being what could be considered as a "serious actor." When he makes a movie as good as "Trees Lounge," it makes you wonder why he feels the need to pop up in all of Adam Sandler's tired vehicles. He's even the highlight in those films.The film has its fair share of cameos, most noticeably by Samuel L. Jackson in a role similar to that he played in "Hard Eight." But where the film truly succeeds is not via the surface, but through a much deeper level of realism. We meet people like Tommy a lot. Whether it is drunkards or loafers, they're everywhere. "Trees Lounge" is disturbingly depressing on a very subtle level because of the way it deals with Tommy. It's hard to truly explain the feelings the film creates without ruining the ending, which I will resist doing. But it's unexpected and somehow very depressing on an unusual level. No stereotypical deaths or such bold turns in the screenplay. It's the subtle stuff that drives "Trees Lounge." It has its flaws but it also surpasses movies of its kind on a level that not many manage to do.