PimpinAinttEasy Dear Squares,I know life is tough. Many movies have been made, books been written and songs been sung about out plight. But most of us like to see what life is like on the other side too, don't we? I mean, we like to vicariously enjoy the adventures of the outlaws and the misfits.If your answer is yes, American Heart is the movie for you. It is about an ex-con (Jeff Bridges) just out of jail, trying to settle back into ordinary life while also taking care of his creative teenage son (Edward Furlong) who is slowly falling into bad company.Bridges as a wiry muscular ex-con shows why he survived the 80s which left talented guys like Mickey Rourke, Michael Madsen and Eric Roberts in the wilderness. You've got to respect this man's range. He has been one of the top five American actors of the last 25 years. Furlong plays the role he is more well known for in Terminator 2 and American History X.The film is pretty depressing when you think about it. The lack of opportunities when you're out of jail with everyone breathing down your neck. Materialistic women who only want to have a good time. Fans of Sherry Baby and Straight Time would definitely enjoy this film. There are some great long shots of this wharf where Brides and Furlong spend a lot of time together. The ending is great. The film deserves a blu-ray.Best Regards, Pimpin.(7/10)

Andy (film-critic) I recently stumbled upon one of Jeff Bridges early pieces entitled "American Heart" and was again impressed with his ability to take a cliché character coupled with a choppy story and transform it into a meaningful, albeit mediocre, film. While not all elements work in this independent feature, it is the power and raw nature of the good parts that make this itty-bitty feature shine.Jeff Bridges. Even in the early 90s he was making powerful cinema with strong characters and dedicated roles. "American Heart" could have easily fallen into the category of desperate father/son reunion fare, but instead it jumps beyond that into a world all its own thanks to our leading man, Mr. Jeff Bridges. He is nothing short of flawless in this film. His body image, his tone, his strength/courage/fears are all incredibly real and developed. When you watch "American Heart", you do not see Bridges playing a father role, but instead see the character of Jack in every scene. Through those squinty eyes and burly biceps, through the years of prison life dutifully planted behind his long, pony-tail hair, his youthful troubles beautifully (albeit randomly) placed throughout this story, Bridges becomes Jack. He becomes a man who has seen more in life than we have time to see, but yet we can see it through Bridges' character. Bridges is the lead and the obvious scene-stealer of this film and there is no way to deny his excellence. It is due to his ability that the other characters fall in line. Those surrounding him, Edward Furlong, Lucinda Jenney, Tracey Kapisky, and Don Harvey are devoted characters, but they do not measure up to what Bridges is pouring. The coupling of Bridges and a young Furlong is exceptional, but for me, it could have been more. They are father and son, the connection there is obvious, but it is when Furlong explores on his own, symbolically following in his father's footsteps, that we see a lack of character. He becomes annoying and more childish than mature. This is a growth film for Furlong, and in my opinion, there wasn't enough growing for Furlong to really make that pivotal change by the end. He should have had more interaction with Charlotte, who isn't used enough to perhaps add conflict between the two men. She is one of Bridges' backbone character, but is only used as more eye-candy for the screen. Then there is Bridges' old business associate who just happens to follow the rulebook for cliché, he was my least favorite character and more filler than necessary. My point? Without Bridges this would have been a forgettable film.Characters were beautifully placed. Bridges claims this to be his favorite film, and his heart, his entire heart is in the character, but Peter Silverman's script could have used more grit. There was still a sensation of sugarcoating involved with the story. How simple was it for Nick (Furlong) to get to his dad, to not have to go to school, to live on the streets – these were are too simple for someone who may not have had the real-life experiences yet like his father. This doesn't mean that the story wasn't dark. This is a story of a family with nothing, who strives to have nothing more than just freedom and each other – it is a dark story and Martin Bell did a phenomenal job of making sure that we weren't distracted with unnecessary emotional pitfalls. His camera work and direction paired well with Bridges' powerful work, but it again goes back to the downfall of the story that will not allow me to give this film a perfect score. The relationship between Furlong and his pseudo-girlfriend is annoying, and ultimately distracting from the real story. There is no chemistry or emotion there, so when he tries to "free" her, it just feels like an event that needed to happen instead of "should be" happening. The stripper mother story, again, too much filler. Thankfully, these are all used up in the center of the film giving us a strong beginning and an emotionally beautiful ending. Powerful acting, strong direction, tight camera work – a couple of more hours spent on the script and "American Heart" would be an instant addition to the collection.Overall, I liked "American Heart" because of the true work that everyone put into it. This was a project of passion, a story with characters that everyone wanted to be involved with no matter the chunkiness of the story. Bridges needs to win an Oscar, he should have won for this film. You, as a viewer, cannot keep you eyes off him as he struggles with the new life in Seattle and dreams of Alaska. Martin Bell understands the streets, or at least early 90s streets, and while the image of this film doesn't withstand the test of time, the overall tones and themes are powerful and unforgiving. Furlong tried to keep up with Bridges, but it was impossible. There were times he was just too childish and annoying, completely destroying the conventional character developed from the beginning. There are great moments in this film that stand apart from the classic Hollywood recycle, and for that I must give "American Heart" credit. If released today, I think it would be a runaway success, it would be a word of mouth film, while I cannot add it to my collection, it will be a film I will strongly suggest to others. Jeff Bridges. Can you believe the work he did in this film? The man has an undeniable eye for the trade that he is in, and he should not be afraid to exploit it further. With "American Heart", Bridges has rejuvenated my hope to find a great American actor.Bravo Mr. Bridges, Bravo!Grade: **** out of *****

P.M. Reilich Well, here I am again commenting with nobody listening. I saw it on Showtime a few nights ago, and frankly I don't even know why I have Showtime, or that is, why Showtime is subscribed to in the house where my wife and son and me currently live in North Hollywood after they tried to get rid of me so many times before. I'm such a damn loser, of course I don't blame them. I should be dead by now. But here I am. And they love me, so.. here I am.I've made a lot of dumb-ass comments before on this site. I hate reading most of them, except maybe the one on Fabulous Baker Boys. I could say the reason I didn't even know this film existed is because my son was born in March of 1992 and literally all of my time was spent caring for him that year. So maybe I'm not as much of a loser as I thought. American Heart really hit me hard, though. Powerful mother. I like how the title sounds like a stupid country record, too. Puts it smack where it needs to be: heard by the mainstream. If it wasn't seen by the mainstream, that's nothing more than Sturgeon's Law (95% of everything is crap) applied to general film viewing public.If I was president, I would force feed ala Clockwork Orange certain movies to every citizen - i.e. force each person to view with eyes pinned open until they vomit, then force more viewing. I know this is stupid and didn't work etc. but still.. Those movies would be Wilder's The Apartment, Fabulous Baker Boys and this film. A couple others too, that I can't think of at the moment as I'm hurrying because my wife needs to get on the computer to do her work so we can feed ourselves.Just wanted to say that this film is freaking great, very realistic and reveals EXACTLY what it's like to be an ex-con trying to go straight and how our screwed up society prevents that. Whatever with drama, films, directing, art and other crap. This film isn't about those things. This film has a movie star, Jeff Bridges, and he's freaking great that he would make a film like this. He deserves a damn medal and three halves for doing this realistic stuff about REALLY IMPORTANT issues. Don't fool yourselves, people. Our country sucks when it comes to helping people get their lives together. The parole officer character was REAL, phony helpfulness, totally uncaring in the end. The system creates this screwup, where people in positions to help simply can't get anything done.But also, the Bridges character is a hick screwup. Think about this, people. Don't just go, he's a mean mother. Think about what kind of cultural influences create people like this. I used to dig Fogerty's and Seger's etc. voices in that kind of rock music. But after seeing this film, I'll never want to hear that kind of music again, and I'm a professional musician who has played this stuff on concert stages many times. IT NEEDS TO STOP. That's all. Go home to your kids, people. Be nice. Learn to think like Jack Lemmon. Get off the crud that's messing your head up. Make it to Alaska if that's what it takes. Whatever it takes. Just do it.

lazarillo This is a dramatic, narrative film by Martin Bell, the director of the excellent documentary "Streetwise". And while it is obvious Bell was a little uncomfortable with the narrative format, it is one of the few independent films of the 1990's that doesn't suffer from the Quentin Tarantino syndrome--i.e. it is not just a pastiche of other movies the director has seen. It's clear Bell based a lot of this movie on real life. In fact, many of the characters here were obviously based on real people in "Streetwise"--the kid and his ex-con father, the tomboy lesbian, the 14-year-old amateur hooker. The movies suffers a little in comparison to early Gus Van Sant films ("Mala Noche","Drugstore Cowboy", "My Own Private Idaho")which had similar down-and-out characters and were also set in the American Northwest. But many will find this film refreshingly honest and less pretentious, at least, than some of Van Sant's films.What really makes this film is the acting. It marked Jeff Bridges return to independent film (five or six years before "The Big Lebowski"), and his performance here makes one forgive him for the Hollywood crap he made in the 80's like "Against All Odds". Edward Furlong is also very good. I remember reading some alarmist claptrap about him in Premiere magazine around the time of this movie, about how he was dating a 30-year-old woman (oh, the horror! the horror!) and about to become another young Hollywood casualty. Well, starting with this film he ended up carving a nice little niche for himself in independent film (i.e. "Pecker", "Animal Factory"). Turns out that just because you're not starring in "Terminator 3" it doesn't necessarily mean you're sharing needles in a crack house with guys named Corey and girls named Shannen. And as a little icing on the cake this movie has a great Tom Waits theme song which you can't find any of his albums. Definitely a recommended movie.