Lonesome Jim

Jim is twenty-seven and comes home to Indiana having become nothing in New York. His family owns a ladder factory. His mother is too cheerful, his father too quiet, and a few days after he arrives his brother drives into a tree, leaving Jim with two children. Anika, a nurse he meets at the hospital, wants something from him, and he cannot carry that either. The film is not interested in depression but in the appeal of self-pity. Jim keeps saying his life is bad while everyone around him is worse off, and the story shows this without underlining it and never once takes his side. Steve Buscemi directed. Casey Affleck plays Jim, Liv Tyler plays Anika, Mary Kay Place the mother and Seymour Cassel the father. It was shot cheaply on digital and screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005. Buscemi's approach to performance is clear: nobody raises the emotional register, lines are left half finished, and the comedy comes entirely out of discomfort. Who it is for: anyone who likes American independents and washed-out protagonists. Who it is not for: anyone waiting for redemption. Jim is unlikeable throughout, the story goes nowhere, and despite its short length the film moves slowly.