Customer Reviews

Sonny

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

You really do not want to miss James Franco's soulful and raw portrayal of Sonny. This movie would be easily forgotten by most people after watching it, if it weren't his performance that fleshes out this character and burns him into your mind. A very passionate, gritty, and sad movie. Worth watching.

Despite absolutely being obsessed with James Franco, this movie was really great. The direction by cage is great and i ab. loved the ending. The only thing i found irritating was Sonny's mothers accent and overzealousness. Worthwhile film! loved it.

James Franco plays a very attractive former military man who returns home to his less than stellar family. I loved this movie. It was original and something different. James Franco deserves some indy awards buzz for his portrayal of Sonny. Nicholas Cage did a great job with his directorial debut. There is not much I didn't like about this film. It was something different and I appreciated that. Nick Cage also shines in his brief cameo in the film.

Sonny (James Franco) is a young male hustler who grew up very fast in New Orleans'
fabled and infamous FRENCH QUARTER. When the movie begins, he has just come back home
after a few years, from serving in the Army. He is full of promise and hope, as he intends to
change his life now and get a legitimate job in Texas or somewhere other than NOLA, where he
is well known as a young & highly skilled pleaser of older wealthier New Orleans society ladies.
His mother, Jewel, is an ex-prostitute who is waaay past her prime, and she knows it.
But her real skills lie in the arts of manipulation and emotional blackmail.
She is said to have "schooled" her young Sonny in the arts of carnal pleasures from the age of twelve.
This info in itself is left open, so your mind is left to draw the weird, creepy, taboo conclusion that
perhaps his mom kicked it with him (in bed) a few times, to get him ready for life as NOLA's premiere gigolo!
(Eeee-yol!!)---though you never actually see anything inappropriate between them, it is implied in a way!
She again, is a master manipulator, who'll use anything or anyone in her path to keep herself afloat financially.

Once her Sonny comes back home, he finds that she has replace him with a young female prostitute named Carol,
who is blonde, beautiful, and as skilled in her craft as Sonny is.
She also shares Sonny's ambition to rid himself of his past life, and to seek redemption,
as it were, through living a legitimate and respectable life.
Well, without giving too much more away...
Long story short, Sonny Boy's mother is not too pleased at all with his plans to
just visit NOLA, then leave!--There's still money to be made in her boy! (-:
She is equally annoyed that a bond is building between her boy / meal ticket, and her best "girl",
so she sets out to destroy this burgeoning union, and to crush whatever dreams that they both
may have of legitimacy and redemption, just so she can selfishly keep a roof over her head and
food in her belly and ever-widening hips.

As the story unfolds, a series of unfortunate events unfurls, and poor Sonny finds himself right smack
dab in the middle of the street life again! His once very possible dreams and hopes begin to fade, as he
finds himself turning tricks with New Orleans' elite high society sexually frustrated divas, one played
by veteran actress Brenda Vaccarro. For fans of James Franco's hotness, as well as his incredible acting
ability, there is plenty of gratuitous nudity and undulation happening throughout for your enjoyment.
But seriously, though this is a low budget film, it still manages to communicate and tell a story.
Nicholas Cage, did a decent directing job, and the story is filled with quirks, weird twists, etc.,
which you expect from an eccentric like Cage. He even does a seedy cameo role towards the end,
when Sonny, distraught over finding out that one of his best childhood family friends and supporters
was indeed his father, (another lie from his mother), after he is killed in a freak accident,
explodes in rage, and goes berserk in a night of drinking and destruction in the French Quarter,
that finds him going outside of his usual female clientele to turn a "rough trade" trick with a
local business man, which turns really ugly!

Anywayz, as the story concludes, both Sonny and Carol (who actually does muster the
where-with-all to leave for awhile), are left to decide if they can REALLY LEAVE THE LIFE BEHIND
to start a new one together, or are they indeed trapped in the seedier side of this life that they
have both been plunged into from birth? )-:
Sonny's mother lays the emotional blackmail and motherly guilt-inducing hysterics on thick,
in a final attempt to keep him in her grasp, and to use him up, until his shelf life is over,
or she dies first!---She doesn't care about anything or anyone, but her own selfish ends.

Ultimately, for them, as it is with each and everyone of us, the decision is theirs! (-:
Once again, I say that I got it, and liked it... If you are expecting a very polished production,
then you'll be disappointed, because this film was meant to be like a gritty independent.
But the performances of a young James Franco, as well as his supporting cast:
Brenda Blethyn (Jewel), Mena Suvari (Carol), Harry Dean Stanton (friend / father), with short
performances by hottie Scott Caan, Brenda Vaccaro, and Nicholas Cage himself (who also directed),
make this an interesting viewing experience to say the least. ****4 Stars Overall****

This movie was very moving, and absolutely fantastic. James Franco does an amazing job, and is definitely one of the most underrated actors around today. The storyline of the movie at times seems almost ridiculous, mother-son prostitution and so on, but it really does bring a combination of many things: tragedy, drama, & even comedy. I would definitely recommend this to James Franco fans.

Excellent film. James Franco is truly a great actor...just wished he'd get more recognition for his body of work. He's outstanding and this movie is a perfect vehicle for his rare talents.

"Carol," with her 20s flapper bob done up in platinum blonde, is a weary young prostitute who is tiring of never being able to have children. I can see why Mena Suvari jumped through hoops to play this part: she gets to walk through the rain, kiss James Franco while supine on a pile of hay in the barn, and also sink hysterically onto her knees in a giant mud puddle in the middle of a storm while sobbing her eyes out and suffering the indignity of having her mascara run. Even on SIX FEET UNDER Mena Suvari rarely got to stretch her acting muscles like this. She begs Sonny to love her and let her bear his children, just to run off somewhere where they wouldn't have to be male and female prostitutes and they could just be normal people.

Well, as many have speculated, this is probably an allegory for the relationship between Cage himself and his kooky wife, Patricia Arquette, both of whom were typecast by the old Hollywood casting system. Arquette finally broke free, divorcing Cage and finding her own network success with "The MEDIUM," in which she plays a wife, mother and psychic all rolled up into one, although she does not sport the fashion flair of Mena Suvari playing her former self in SONNY. In the scene where Carol tells Sonny that she's leaving him for a man (TROY) who will marry her, he's standing there shaving with a big blue towel knotted incredibly low on his waist. I kept thinking, one of two things would happen--a frazzled Sonny was going to take the razor away from his soapy face and slash poor Carol with it; or b, somehow the towel would fall away, or maybe that was just wishful thinking. How tall is Mena Suvari anyhow? In the swingers scene where she and Sonny have sex with two middle aged and unattractive parents, the little children run in afterwards, happy to see their mom and dad. Mena Suvari stands there, directed to seem awkward, but it is shocking how five and eight year old kids look bigger than she does.

As for Brenda Blethyn or whatever her name is, she is simply terrible. So terrible it makes you rethink all her previous performances and chalk them up to dumb luck, because no one could be so bad without actually being bad--in fact evil. Harry Dean Stanton wears that pork pie hat as though he were born to the role, but why oh why does the music have to telegraph everything that happena to him? But how about Scott Caan, playing Jesse? Sonny and Jesse served together in the Army or whatever, and when they got out Jesse told Sonny that his dad would have a job waiting for them both in the family bookstore (!!!)--however when Sonny gets to Texas he finds out that creditors shut down the bookstore, cancer done took away the life of Scott Caan's dad, and all that is left of the bookstore idea is one book--Camus' STRANGER. In this movie it is presented as a physically hefty book, like the Manhattan Yellow Pages--one sign that the producers never bothered researching the real STRANGER which is only a novella for god's sake.

Caught this on the premium channels last night and was quite enthralled. Excellent plot, great characters and a peek at Brenda Vacarro's [...]! You simply can't go wrong!

After seeing this movie on the New Release wall month after month and always considering it but never enough to actually rent it, I finally saw it on a cable movie channel. I liked it SO much I decided to buy it. To some, it may not be "compelling" but it definitely reeled me in. And personally, I thought it was SUPERB directing from Nick. And knowing he was the director made sense why Mena reminded me of Patricia quite a bit... Nick even has a small part which I thought was GREAT! I FELL IN LOVE with James Franco in this movie, as well as with the story and cinematography... It's definitely NOT a movie for everyone and that's why I only gave it four stars instead of five...

This is, perhaps, one of the best movies I've ever seen. I hold it in very high regard. I'm into the artsy, underrated film scene, so if you're a fan of Hollywood box office hits, I would not suggest this. Some of the content may not be tasteful to some of our more narrow minded citizens, so keep in mind that there are some graphic topics. Such is life. I think the actors all compliment each other perfectly, and do very believable roles. Also, the mood of the movie is languid and slow, which is intoxicating and has a point. Avoid this if you can't handle 2 hours without a gun and a superhero. Great movie! Great directing. Should have been more noted. I'd never heard of it before I randomly picked it up at our crappy video story, and then I was amazed, and just bought a copy for myself.