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[REVIEW
> GOD'S LONELY MAN]
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| 04/13/2001 |
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Through
a Glass Pipe, Darkly: Moody
and dark, "God's Lonely Man" offers a voyeuristic
glimpse of the seamier margins of the urban landscape and its
damaged inhabitants. |
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Reviewed By D. Dammet
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| In his debut feature film, first-time director
Francis von Zerneck has crafted a taut psychological portrait
of a troubled man driven to violent acts of vigilantism
in a search for his own redemption. Moody and dark, "God's
Lonely Man" offers a voyeuristic glimpse of the seamier
margins of the urban landscape and its damaged inhabitants. |
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| Michael
Wyle and Heather McComb in "God's Lonely Man" |
After murdering his cocaine dealer, Ernest has an epiphany
that "goals are really accomplished when they are used
to help other people" and that he has been "selfish way
too long and thatís gonna end right now." He seeks his
own redemption by helping Christiane (Heather McComb),
a 14-year-old prostitute he meets on the streets of Hollywood.
Impersonating a police officer, Ernest manages to separate
Christiane from her malignant parents. His search for
salvation through helping Christiane leads to a search
for her missing younger sister, last seen in the company
of a pedophile. |
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"God's Lonely Man" treads in the same alleyways
of urban blight familiar to anyone who has seen Travis
Bickle's misguided search for salvation in Scorsese's
"Taxi Driver." Although comparison between these
two films is inescapable, von Zerneck's chilling and dismal
tale stands on its own due to believable portrayals of
the central characters by Wyle and McComb. The filmmaking
is additionally superb, with tight editing and a dark,
grainy look that enhances both the tension of the story
and the desolation of this walk through the dark side.
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Now
in theatrical release
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| "In 'God's Lonely Man' Frank von Zerneck Jr. has
crafted a film with all the simplicity, beauty and elegant stealth
of an adder. A lethal tale stripped to its primal elements,
there is nothing about it that does not either hypnotize, sting
or transport with strange beauty and chilling, corrosive terror.
That it is a first film only makes it all the more stunning."
-Wes Craven |
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