Night at the Golden Eagle
A pair of elderly career criminals may have ended their old lives before they can start a new one in this streetwise drama. Tommy (Donnie Montemarano) and Mic (Vinnie Argiro) are a pair of aging wiseguys who used to work on the fringes of the New York mob. Now in their mid-sixties, Tommy has just been sprung from prison after spending seven years behind bars, and Mick has offered to put him up at his place -- a room in a seedy Los Angeles flophouse called the Golden Eagle, which is overrun by junkies, streetwalkers, and bums with no where else to go. While Tommy's been in stir, Mick has been living the straight life; he's gotten a legitimate job, quit drinking, stopped doing business with prostitutes, and has saved up enough money that he and his best friend can head to Las Vegas and start new lives with real jobs there. However, Tommy isn't so sure he wants to live quite so clean, especially on his fight night out of the joint. Tommy meets another resident of the Golden Eagle, Amber (Natasha Lyonne), an attractive young woman who happens to be a hooker. Not having been with a woman for seven years, Tommy is eager to retain Amber's services, but Amber is working for Rodan (Vinnie Jones), a brutal and short-tempered pimp. Tommy's treatment of Amber manages to anger Rodan, and now Mick and Tommy have to get away from the pimp if they have any hope of getting to Las Vegas (and out of Los Angeles) alive. A low-budget labor of love for director Adam Rifkin, A Night at the Golden Eagle's supporting cast includes James Caan, Ann Magnuson, Sam Moore (of the popular singing group Sam and Dave), Fayard Nicholas (of the legendary dance team the Nicholas Brothers), and Francesca 'Kitten' Natividad. more..
Director: Adam Rifkin
Starring: Donnie Montemarano, Vinnie Argiro, Natasha Lyonne, Vinnie Jones, James Caan
A modest pleasure that accomplishes its goals with ease and confidence.
The visual intensity and the relentless degradation visited on the characters begins to feel prurient and dishonest.
Never decides whether it wants to be a black comedy, drama, melodrama or some combination of the three. The acting and direction are all over the map in this consistently depressing, if occasionally interesting, slice of life.
Rifkin milks the generic Bukowski-land setting for all its melodramatic potential, but what little grace his tale of precarious skid-row dignity achieves is pushed into the margins by predictable plotting and tiresome histrionics.
While the homeless, the mentally ill and the generally downtrodden are scattered about like so much shabby furniture, Rifkin has no qualms about wallowing in their filth, but he misses the tragedy of their lives -- just as he misses everything else.
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