No Way Home (1997)

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Blistering performances.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

With the exception of "The Unscarred", this is Buddy Giovinazzo's most technically accomplished piece. It does share thematic similarities with "Combat Shock", but it is a solid character drama that would not be out of place on a double bill with the Australian "The Boys". Being a Giovinazzo flick, it's about deeply flawed characters living in a personal hell. They see no way out of their situation and are too emotionally paralyzed to act, anyway.Deborah Kara Unger, who is a dynamite actress (and seriously sensual), is terrific as Lorraine, the girlfriend of James Russo's Tommy. Tim Roth plays Joey, who has just been released from jail and relies on his brother gratitude to give him a roof and bed until he gets his act together. Complications arise when local criminal elements encroach on Joey's rehabilitation.The plot is nothing new and hardly worth a mention. The drama's the thing here and it burns like a bolt of lightning once the the film's niceties are out of the way. Russo, who was also in "The Unscarred", is hard as nails and scarily convincing as Tommy. Roth never disappoints, unless the script's not there, and in this venture he makes us feel his pain.Another vacation in hell, with a great score, from one of cinema's darkest contemporary directors who is as seriously underrated as Ferrarra is seriously overrated.

Joey gets out of prison after six years. What crime he has served we don't know yet. He goes to his parental home and rings on the door. A blonde opens. Joey asks for his brother Tommy, troubled the blonde goes to get him. A surprised Tommy invites his younger brother. Against his wife's (the blonde) wish Tommy and Joey agree that Joey should live at their home a while, until he get a job and can get a place of his own.Tommy sells grass and Lorrain works as stripper at private parties. Joey is determined to not get in to jail again and begins to work as a window cleaner. Something that Tommy think is stupid, because there's more money to earn on drugs.Joey - who according to himself, is a bit 'slow' since a incident in childhood - develops with time a special relationship with Lorrain, who's at first is skeptical to Joey's stay in the house. Tommy appears the longer the film goes as a real a**hole - he doesn't do anything home, is unfaithful and lies to his wife. When Joey asks Lorrain is happy with her situation he explain, in the key scene of the film, that marriage doesn't have any benefits; "You get marry when you're in love, then you get tired with each other". Lorrain is in any case grateful of that Tommy haven't during their more than four years together never have beaten her once. Something that her former husband did.No Way Back (the title unfortunately sounds like an inferior action flick.) is a traditional film, without too many clichés. The director manages to work up scenes and solutions we recognize to something natural. Powerful, with an every day tone (e.g. when Joey visits his former girlfriend).The actors in the three leading roles are exquisite: Tim Roth as Joey does a typical Tim Roth role without because of that it would be too much Tim Roth of the role. James Russo (Tommy) makes a role portrait who resembles that kind of things he done before, but I want to rank this performance as the best I've seen from him. Deborah (Kara) Unger as Lorrain, who placed the centre of gravity on the acting and not to look sexy, convinces with her restrained acting style in her study of a woman who's become tired.

Those who are familiar with Buddy Giovinazzo will have known the film COMBAT SHOCK. This one, and his past effort, share a trusting relationship with each other, with this film's script being fairly identical to the Troma classic. Buddy G's idea for making movies appear to be concerned with a haunting look at modern society, and while it worked extremely well for COMBAT SHOCK, it does the same for NO WAY HOME. It's not the old film since this was made on a bigger budget and providing a different story, but it suffers from a serious lack of balancing. This begins as an ideal "brother" drama set in the slums, and later progresses into trashy proportions. You might be baffled over a couple of melodramatic moments that serve no honesty to this, and that is if you liked COMBAT SHOCK. NO WAY HOME isn't worth sitting through, but you'll be greatly rewarded with a slam-bang finish that can forever remain disturbing.

The characters of "Tommy" (James Russo) and "Joey" (Tim Ross) are typical of the genre of the American "undream." Pathetic, yet engrossing, this story is a predictable drama of the failure of our system of crime and punishment. The graphics, scenery, and soundtrack make this a film worth viewing (only once), but memorable in its characters and story.