Steve Pulaski Bobbie (Vincent Kartheiser) is a young, petty thief with little going for him by himself. If he continues to act alone, he's going to get nothing but screwed in the long run. However, he decides to team up with the charismatic junkie and thief Mel (James Woods), who is prepared to take the kid under his wing and make a true, big-time crook out of him. Bobbie brings along his girlfriend Rosie (Natasha Gregson Wagner) to work in unison with Mel and his longtime girlfriend Sid (Melanie Griffith) with plans to conduct a large drug heist that will provide them with another cash for life. The challenge at hand now is to assimilate Bobbie and Rosie to the cut-throat lifestyle of the drug life, and to get them in a position where they'll be able to survive.Another Day in Paradise comes from the uncompromisingly honest and brutal mind of Larry Clark, who answered with this film after his unbridled masterpiece Kids made waves of controversy a few years beforehand. Clark's subjects in that particular film were young, impressionable teenage boys and girls, running around New York unsupervised swearing, robbing, and having unprotected sex. Clark now sets his sights on a group of people who are slightly older but possess a similar, youthful, impulsive mentality about the world.Consider Mel, who constantly acts with animal-like dominance whenever he is challenged, mainly by Bobbie. "You never mess with a man's money, you never mess with a man's dope, and you never mess with a man's p****," Mel tells Bobbie when Bobbie remarks how attractive Sid is. This sort of animalistic protection over what Mel thinks is his carries over throughout the picture.Because Clark, who was already in his fifties making this film, has his reckless background and definitely has his checkered past, Another Day in Paradise feels authentic and real, mainly because we could see these series of events having their place in Clark's life. Whether or not the film is partially autobiographical is up for debate, but with every Clark effort comes shockingly natural and believable scenes involving teenagers or troubled subjects feels as if it could've been extracted from real-life circumstances. If not Clark's dizzying, completely fascinating style, the film needs to be seen for a terrifically over-the-top performance by James Woods, effectively stealing nearly every scene he finds himself in. Kartheiser and Wagner work well with what they have, in addition, and Melanie Griffith begins with her string of rebellious performances, continuing on with John Waters' Cecil B. Demented in 2001. Immediately, Another Day in Paradise finds itself sandwiched between Clark's exceptional directorial effort Kids and Clark's future directorial effort Bully, both of which I find to be more complete pictures with a smoother, more original focuses. This particular picture feels a bit sloppier, a bit more ordinary in its focus, and bears a style which can only be viewed as Clark being something he isn't, between the imperfect camera shots, dazed-and-confused style shooting, and the seventies-infused soundtrack. However, the film emphasizes what I love about Clark, which is do what you want, how you want, and let your age be your justification for experience and knowledge.Starring: Vincent Kartheiser, Natasha Gregson Wagner, James Woods, and Melanie Griffith. Directed by: Larry Clark.

dwpollar 1st watched 12/26/2009 – 8 out of 10(Dir-Larry Clark): Extremely well executed drama about a couple of older drug-using thieves who take a younger couple under their wings as they survive in this rough un-forgiving chaotic world. The movie begins as the younger couple is introduced and the male character(played by Vincent Kartheiser) robs a community college's snack room of it's vending machine change and gets ferociously beat up by a security guard but then kills him. Uncle Mel(played by James Woods) then invites the kids to tag along with him and his girl and they graduate to bigger thefts with bigger consequences. The older couple(who can't have kids) kind of take on a tutoring and parenting role to the younger couple and they start developing a good friendship as well. It's obvious there are needs being fulfilled both ways in a companionship perspective as they both have many losses in their personal lives. Mistakes start being made after it's determined the younger girl is pregnant and the younger couple start evaluating whether this life is for them. This causes friction in the characters in this no-holds barred insane lifestyle movie where the characters just want to make good for themselves and this vulnerability brings the audience to like the characters. Melanie Griffith is un-expectedly excellent as the older woman and the overall acting and direction is very well done. You believe this story and that keeps you interested and involved until the end. The movie itself is not for the faint-at-heart but it is a definite un-heralded gem in the independent film-making world and should be viewed.

mram16 It wasn't until quite awhile after I read the novel by Eddie Little that I realized there was a film adaptation. I'm usually skeptical of adaptations, but I'm glad I saw this movie. It takes an unflinching look at the lives of lowlife criminals, living only for the next big score. James Woods and Melanie Griffith are great as Mel and Sid, the unconventional and unintentional parent figures to lovers Bobbie and Rosie (played by Vincent Kartheiser and Natasha Gregson Wagner), and all of them are junkies. These four people come together to form a strange kind of family, but a family that is doomed to fall apart. A great film with an ending that is both hopeful and sad.

willow_barby Soo... I'm a Vincent Kartheiser fan. And I like James Woods... sometimes. I was shocked by the first few minutes where Bobbie (Vincent Kartheiser) gets beaten up and such. I decided not to watch it at night time as I usually do with movies. The whole movie is shocking, with lots of swearing, drugs, alcohol... (and smoking, but I smoke so I am not complaining about that) But I think it's well played by Vincent Kartheiser and that girl, and I've seen better of James Woods and Melanie Griffith. It's a surprising movie. and well, I'm going to see it again! Sure, the camera work looks like it's done by an amateur... But it has a great story and nice environment.