Little Odessa

United States

1994

98 Min

Color

2.35:1

English

Currently 3.6/5 Stars.
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EXEC Claudia Lewis, Rolf Mittweg, Nick Wechsler

CAST Tim Roth, Edward Furlong, Moira Kelly, Vanessa Redgrave, Paul Guilfoyle, Natalya Andrejchenko, Maximilian Schell, David Vadim, Mina Bern, Boris McGiver

MUSIC Dana Sano

Venice (In Competition): Silver Lion, Best Supporting Actress, Toronto, Sundance (Premieres), London, SXSW, San Sebastián (American Way of Death)

Synopsis

This film tells a bitter tale of a dysfunctional family. Joshua, a cold-blooded professional killer, returns to his Brighton Beach boyhood home for a “job.” He knows it will be difficult to return to the Russian-immigrant community of his youth—in his eyes, we see anticipation of the inevitable emotional pain and psychic turmoil that seeing his forsaken family and estranged companions will bring him. To do his job, and try to maintain some semblence of sanity, he has had to wall off his humanity from even himself. Seeing his kid brother, who adores him, talking with his dying mother, who still loves him, and yes, arguing with his abusive father, begins to wreak havoc with his personal defenses. As his steely demeanor begins to dissolve, we are shown the soul of a hit-man crumbling away, piece by piece. Finally, all that he now allows himself to admit that he loves is agonizingly torn away from him and he is left with the ultimate punishment for his transgressions. —IMDb

Director

James Gray

Bio: Writer/director James Gray made his first film Little Odessa (1994) at the age of twenty-four. The film, which starred Tim Roth, Edward Furlong, Vanessa Redgrave and ‘Maximillian Schell’, received critical acclaim and was the winner of the Venice Film Festival’s prestigious Silver Lion Award in 1994.

Miramax Films released James Gray’s second feature, The Yards (2000) starring Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix, Faye Dunaway, Ellen Burstyn, Charlize Theron and James Caan in fall of 2000. The film was selected for official competition at the 2000 Cannes International Film Festival. Prior to ‘The Yards’ and ‘Little Odessa’, Gray attended film school at the University of Southern California. It was there that his student film Cowboys and Angels was first seen by producer Paul Webster, who encouraged Gray to write his first feature script.

As a child growing up in Queens, New York, Gray aspired to be a painter. However, when introduced in his early teenage years to the works… read more

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Jason Melanson

12May13

James Gray's debut set the stage for what has turned into a brilliant career. The bonds of family and community butt heads with individualism with tragic results. Gray understands the war within individuals who want to break free of their roots but cannot. A powerful debut which holds up much better than other mid to late 90's crime films because he does not feel the need to be Quentin Tarantino.

L. Nolan

10Sep12

24 years old. Stunning debut.

Neil Bahadur and 6 others like this

Adam Cook, Bruno Leal, Tiago Costa, Miguel Ferreira, JHB, Kenrick Block

meancreek

27Jul12

James Gray is one of the most underrated directors around.

Adam Cook and Kenrick Block like this

duffers

25Mar12

Tim Roth is both at calm with himself and tormented. They just don't make gangster films as unglamourous as this. Another Roth film No Way Home would make a good companion piece.

Adam Cook likes this