Purely Joyful Movie!

An absolute waste of money

A different way of telling a story

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Nicolas Cage directed, "Sonny" is a title to be remembered as a past time to the Ryan Gosling "esk" movies of yesterday. Featured as a dark horse humor of the deep south, with the contrast of the all to familiar promiscuous and underworld venues of "The Bad Lieutenant," James Franco puts on the convincing mask of a '1980s Nawlins" trick turner. Very independent and distant from his present day roles, Franco's performance is raw and distinguished. The plot is as simple as it is compelling. Despite this little known title, for those movie goers with the need and appetite for films of Leaving Las Vegas magnitude, "Sonny" is the enthralling feature to curb your hunger. If your search for a cinematic hallmark leads you here, I urge you to venture elsewhere. The simplicity and brutish complexion of this early 2000s artwork makes it an appealing plunge for viewers of unassuming admiration. "Better than Spiderman, not as good as 127," gage as you see fit.

Nicolas Cage needed to get this out of his system, I guess. He never directed before or since, and it's a project that speaks somewhat to what we know about his influences - James Franco, channeling, I think, James Dean, who was Cage's reason to become an actor - and, I suppose, to his wanting to tell this particular story of a gigolo in New Orleans circa 1981. Whether or not he'll make a movie with such concerns, or just another movie as director period, remains to be seen. For now we have this, a melancholy look at a young man screwed up by his mother (and by screwed up I mean by her having him as a man-whore starting when he was 12 years old) and unsure of where to go in his life. It has its misses, and just strange quality about it at times. But it also has life and some weird energy about it that's hard to shake off.Cage certainly casts with some interest, and more or less he's a good actor's director. He gets Franco to dig deep into his character Sonny, a guy who escaped to the army more-so than really serving from his existence as a hustler of lonely middle-aged women looking for some hot thrills and sex. When he gets back he wants to go legit - something his mother (Brenda Blethyn) is dead-set against - but is drawn back in after a bad encounter visiting an old army buddy in Texas, and when he realizes that his reputation in the quarter of New Orleans he lives in is locked: he's a man-whore, and is undesirable except in his lowly position. He also seeks advice from a boyfriend of his mothers, Harry Dean Stanton, and his mother's current protégé prostitute played by Mena Suvari.Cage manages to get some really affecting scenes with his characters. One of which is the morning after Sonny and Carol have done some prostituting at a Louisiana mansion (Sonny with the main madame, Carol with some other guy), and they're at a farm and see in the barn a dog that's just given birth to puppies. It brings Carol to tears as she thinks she won't be able to get out unless she makes a clean break. It's one of those highly melodramatic scenes- think Douglas Sirk, that much so- but it works, albeit with some cheesy touches (when Carol says to Sonny "I love you" rain just starts on cue). Other scenes try to be more affecting but are a little more compromised. Scenes where Jewel (Blethyn) does her sob routine in front of Sonny work up to a certain Tennessee Williams style dramatic point, but Blethyn's accent is way over the top. A couple of short scenes between Stanton and Franco fare much better.And other times Cage is just trying things out as a director, and sometimes things work and sometimes not. He's a little rocky when it comes to scene transitions: we see Sonny's trip from New Orleans to Texas with lots of fast-motion shots of his car driving to Rush's 'Limelight' and it's just silly. And when it comes time for Sonny to really be low in the dumps following the death of a character, as he wanders drunk and meets a gay drug-fueled pimp (played by Cage himself, Acid Yellow, a particularly strange and unerring figure to come at this point in the film), it's met with some mixed results as Franco is good but everything else seems forced or fake. But, again, usually with his actors he gets good work, and a feeling of a 1950's existential crisis comes out of the material that works for Franco to play up (frankly he might even be better than Dean in some cases, perhaps slightly channeling young Cage to boot), and the ending of the film is a very nice twist.It's not something to rush out to rent or buy, and I'm sure only die-hard Cage enthusiasts or fans of the actors will really seek it out (any die-hard fans of Blethyn out there?). On its own terms, however modest, it comes in with a swagger and heartbeat and does its own thing to some good if not great effect. If Cage has another project he wants to direct, I'll show some interest if not overwhelming enthusiasm.

Directors are really like their movies. I like Nicolas Cage as an actor and I give him more credit than most people and critics do. His looks are good for the type of characters he always plays but he in my opinion should stick to acting, rather than directing movies, or he should at least next time pick a more interesting script.The movie tries hard and its intentions are all good but the movie just isn't quite 'it'. The events and situations in this movie are just far from interesting. characters come and go, that it becomes hard to see where the movie is trying to head to and what it tries to achieve. For a serious movie that's about a gigolo the movie stays surprisingly much on the 'choir boy' and good, positive side of things. On top of that the movie moves too slow at points and some sequences go on for far too long. It's obvious that Cage wanted to make the movie and its feel more 'European' than 'Hollywood', but he should just leave 'European' movie making to Europeans next time.The main character is such an unpredictable and aggressive one that it's also hard to sympathize for him at moments, as is the case with almost every other character in the movie.The actors all mostly did a good job. Nicolas Cage obviously has some good connections in Hollywood, also thanks to his family of course. It's a good and real character movie but it's just too bad that the script and characters in it isn't any better.It's not that this movie is really bad, it's more that if offers so little refreshing, interesting or original. No wonder that the movie got overlooked and is so little known to people.6/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

I saw this movie last night and I am still thinking about the characters in the movie Sonny. I thought the characters were very unique and displayed some deep emotion, which is definitely not something I can say about the characters in most other "mainstream" movies. James Franco does an excellent job and is able to convey a lot of emotion (or lack of) through his facial expressions. Also, the scene where he flips out on the trick for not paying him his full amount was excellent.I can understand why some people disliked Sonny though; there is not a lot of action in the film but much more focus on the characters' personal traits and lives. To some people (like my boyfriend) lack of action automatically makes a movie boring. However, I think sometimes action in movies is dazzling yet empty. Sonny is a great movie, especially if you like to watch movies that focus more on interactions between people rather than action.