Written in 2007
Six Ways to Sunday (1997) is a dark crime comedy set in Youngstown, Ohio.
Norman Reedus is 18, lives with the most castrating mother ever to be in a
film, and works at a fast food restaurant. His childhood friend, who works as
an enforcer for for the Jewish Mafia, takes him on a job in a strip joint.
Reedus goes postal and beats the crap out of a deadbeat. When he is summoned
to meet the boss, he is expecting to be in big trouble, but it turns out that
the deadbeat got religion after Reedus visited him, paid off his entire debt,
and gave the mob additional cash to make sure Reedus wouldn't come back.
Reedus is welcomed into the organization, and assumed an important role after
his buddy is arrested in a holdup.
He moves himself and his mother into a house, and becomes a hot man. Seems
he has an alter ego that is a ladies man with the capacity for ultra-violence.
Then he makes his first mistake, and tries to get fresh with Elina Löwensohn,
the big boss's maid. He is ordered to court her. The rest of the film is about
his progression in the mob, and his relationship with Elina Löwensohn vs. his
relationship with his mother.
Debra Harry was incredible as the mother, doing things like giving Reedus
his bath, pinching his blackheads, controlling the lamp in his bedroom, and
trying to keep him from girls. Norman Reedus owned his own role, and was
perfect. Elina Löwensohn was charming, and I would have liked to see more of
her. While there is plenty of humor, there is also explicit violence, so be
warned. This could have gone wrong so many ways, but director Adam Bernstein
(It's Pat) kept it on track.
Written in 1999. Contains major spoilers.
... made the rounds at the festivals, but didn't get much theater play. I
think it was introduced at the SXSW festival here in Austin. Typical goofy
indy premise. Jewish mobsters in Youngstown, Ohio take a liking to a young
"goy" with a mild polite exterior and raging violence beneath the surface.
Of course, he's only violent because his dad left his mom and she raised him
as if he were still age four. Or something like that.
In the end, he (or the spirit of his dad within him) ends up humping his
mom. Although she's all for it, and had been prodding him to do it, she
hangs herself when she realizes what she's done. Or maybe he hangs her and
blames it on the spirit of his dad. Whatever.
He packs her in a travel case, picks up his girl, slaughters all the
mobsters, goes to the bus station and grabs the first Greyhound bus out of
Youngstown. He buys three seats - one for him, one for his best girl, and
one for his dead mom.
I think you can figure from the summary whether you'd like it or not. "
