‘One-Eye Jimmy’ offers an underdeveloped plot,
sheepish charactersBy Brandon Wilson
Daily Bruin Contributor
The writer-director behind the new indie flick, "The Search for
One-Eye Jimmy," may be the head writer for "Seinfeld," but none of
that show’s trademark wit or humor winds up on the big screen. At a
slim 82 minutes, this would-be comedy is yet another inane ode to
Brooklyn (with "Smoke," "Blue in the Face," and now this piffle,
Brooklyn cinema has definitely hit a slump). Surely the filmmaker,
Sam Henry Kass, thought the local color and eccentricities of
Brooklynites would make for instant entertainment, but he’s wrong.
Instead the viewer is subjected to one pointless exchange after
another in a film unafraid to use bodily functions to punctuate a
joke.
Hoyt McCallany plays Les, a Brooklyn native, back home and fresh
out of film school (with a set-up like this Kass displays his
startling lack of imagination before the film has started its
second reel). Les decides to make a documentary of sorts about the
neighborhood, and every denizen of Red Hook, Brooklyn that Les and
his mute cinematographer turn their camera on has some sort of
superficial indicator of eccentricity: there’s fast-talking Junior
(Nick Turturro), a local hustler who always has an angle; there’s
Joe Head (Michael Baldalucco), a slacker whose most distinguishing
feature is his sizable cranium; and then there’s Ed Hoyt (Steve
Buscemi), whose only source of income is charging five dollars for
polaroids with a wrestling champ cut-out. Lest you think these
characters are being oversimplified in this account, rest assured,
there is nothing more to the aforementioned dramatis personae than
what is listed. In fact, anyone in this film can be summed up with
one short sentence without fear that some extra dimension will
later be revealed which gives them any depth, reality or
humanity.
The plot, what there is of it, centers around the search of the
filmmakers, Junior, Joe Head, and Ed for Ed’s brother, the titular
Jimmy Hoyt. A loser of legendary proportions, it is unclear why
anyone cares where he is; but of course this is all just a ruse to
introduce a parade of neighborhood oddities along the way.
The problem is that none of them (with the possible exception of
Tony Sirico’s turn as a local goodfella) are particularly funny.
What is truly mystifying is how Kass managed to interest talented,
established actors like the Turturros (John also appears briefly),
Buscemi and even Samuel L. Jackson in such a flimsy and anemic
screenplay. Can we chalk it up to the irresistible urge even the
best actors get to ham it up and shamelessly mug? Is it just a case
of New Yorker solidarity gone too far? Or does Kass possess
compromising photos which made his an offer they couldn’t
refuse?
Indulging in this kind of speculation is infinitely more
entertaining than the remedial silliness on hand in "One-Eye
Jimmy." Kass apparently has no clue as to what makes Brooklyn tick,
let alone what’s interesting about the people who live there;
perhaps the filmmaker was so intent on debuting he didn’t let the
lack of a subject stop him. Such diligence, when properly guided,
is honorable. But it will be clear to anyone who manages to sit
through this film that the real search in the film is for either
real wit, or a real story. In both cases, the search bears no
fruit.
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FILM: "The Search For One-Eye Jimmy" starring Nick Turturro,
Steve Buscemi, Michael Badalucco and Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini.
Written and directed by Sam Henry Kass.