It’s been awhile since we’ve seen Robert DeNiro get down and dirty for his craft and though it’s no Taxi Driver or Raging Bull, his performance in the recent Being Flynn makes it well worth the price of the rental.
DeNiro plays a delusional wannabe who counts himself among America’s three classic writers along with Mark Twain and J. D. Salinger. He comes face to face with his artistic demons as well as homelessness when he reconnects with his long lost and equally conflicted son played by Paul Dano….a role that suits him well as we’ve seen with Little Miss Sunshine and There Will Be Blood.
It’s directed by Paul Weitz who seems to have a thing for stories that explore the trials of father/son like relationships with films About a Boy, In Good Company and Little Fockers to his credit. Though at times gloomy, it’s a smart little movie with nice tracks from Badly Drawn Boy interspersed (video below) and it is certainly deserving of a wider audience. If seeing DeNiro in the trailer below isn’t enough to get your attention, then maybe knowing it’s based on the Nick Flynn memoir Another Bullshit Day in Suck City will do it for you.