PALOOKAVILLE

US, 1996, 92 minutes, Colour.
William Forsythe, Vincent Gallo, Adam Trese, Frances Mc Dormand.
Directed by Alan Taylor.

Palookaville is an excellent example of American independent film-making. Produced on a small budget, with no star names (yet relying on strong character cast), the film was made in Jersey City, just across the Hudson River from New York City. The witty screenplay is by David Epstein. The strong direction - also with wit - is by Alan Taylor. There is an atmospheric musical score by Rachel Portman.

The film-makers acknowledge a debt to Italian writer Italo Calvino. The plot resembles the Italian film I Soliti Ignoti, the film with Marcello Mastroianni and Vittorio Gassman of 1957 about a group of inept thieves. This American variation is humorous, intelligent, witty and has great insight into ordinary characters who would live in a Joe Palooka kind of town, Palookaville. (Rachel Portman's score emphasises this Italian connection by its similarities to the musical scores of such composers as Nino Rota.)

The film offers an excellent opportunity for William Forsythe to play a sympathetic character - he is usually associated with films as a villain. Vincent Gallo (the murdered brother in Abel Ferrara's The Funeral) is the edgy member of the trio of inept crooks. Adam Trese is the third. The strong supporting cast of character actors also includes Frances Mc Dormand.

The film traces, with some irony, the inept attempts of the trio to do a burglary and then to mastermind an armoured car robbery (with help from the videocassette of the RKO film The Armoured Car Robbery with Charles McGraw). Most of the things that could go wrong do go wrong - however, our good-natured trio emerge as heroes at the end. The film reflects the difficulties of unemployment in the '90s, the mentality of trying to get something for nothing as well as Russ's philosophy of the freeway: when on the freeway you go speedily with the flow, but when you get onto the exit you go back to normal. This is his justification for a one-off robbery. There is a great deal to enjoy as well as to reflect on in Palookaville.

1.The quality of this independent American feature? The quality of the screenplay, direction, characters, wit and intelligence, human insight?

2.The title and the reference to ordinary citizens in ordinary cities? Down and out on their luck? Jersey City, New Jersey, the shops, the streets, supermarkets, ordinary homes, the roads - and just across the river from New York City skyline?

3.The debt to Italo Calvino? The story and characters? The Italianate musical score with its dramatic pauses, chords and humorous commentary?

4.The introduction to the film: the jeweller's robbery, the men in the street parking the car, breaking the bricks, going into the pastry shop by mistake, Jerry and the eating of the pastries, the arrival of the police, Sid and Russ escaping, Jerry caught, Ed being part of the squad, the police eating the pastries? Each of them making their way home? The futility of the evening?

5.The trio as the accustomed robbers in cases like this, unidentified, sometimes not caught? Ordinary citizens in the throes of unemployment, struggles, emotional conflicts? Russ's philosophy of the freeway and then going back to 55 miles per hour?

6.The morality of the trio, the lack of cash flow, unemployment situation, their being despised by people, their personal struggles? The robbery, the plan to take the armoured car? The toy guns - but Russ bringing the real gun, the genuine temptation to shoot someone but his not doing it? The final irony with their good deed (and the $30,000 they might have had) by driving the guard with his heart attack to the hospital and returning the truck to the owners? The rewards by the city?

7.Making mistakes, sitting around cafes analysing what went wrong, the question of luck? Planning and luck?

8.The character of Sid: age, weight, glasses? His attachments to the dogs and having them everywhere, tying them up, walking them, not washing them, their smell? His cadging meals and taking extra food home? His being unemployed, his skills? The initial robbery? The taxi idea and taking the elderly people home from the supermarket? Getting out of the car with the dogs, in the rain, at Enid's shop, her inviting him in, his clothes drying, the collage of trying on the furs, relating well to her, the temptation of the safe, her giving him the number?

9.The character of Russ, his age, appearance, unemployed? Living at home with his mother? His tough attitudes and the irony of his being at home? His visit to June and being able to discuss things with her? Finding Ed there and taunting him, going home with him after the robbery? His relationship with Laurie, climbing in and out of the windows, going back home, keeping his relationship quiet? Sex, relationship, promises to go to California? Meals at home, edgy with Ed? His being nervous all the time?

10.Jerry and his driving the car, getting into the bakery, trying out all the cakes? Not having done his homework well? Hiding while the police searched the bakery? Going home to Betty with all the cakes? The baby? His skills, asking someone for a job, unemployed? Taking the old man home from the supermarket, the pathos of the trip? The idea for the car service? His taking the two passengers home, their complaining when Russ was doing the stakeout of the armoured car trip? Betty at the supermarket? Finding her with the supermarket manager, his angers? At home, no food, hungry and angry, attacking Betty, his apology, her wanting him to apologise to the baby, rehearsing the apology to the manager - but buying the toy guns instead?

11.Ed, policeman, on the job at the bakery, going to see June, being found by Russ, going home with him, the clash with Russ? The investigation, searching his room, the trousers and the remnants of the cakes, licking the trousers - and being observed by Laurie next door? Following Russ and the group, the chase and his flat tyre? His taking Russ at the end, seeming to arrest him?

12.Ed's wife, the clashes between the two? His mother-in-law, watching television, owning the house, comments at the table?

13.Betty, at home, her love for Jerry, the baby? Her skills with the job at the supermarket? The propositions by the manager? Her sympathy for the old man in the rain? Taking him home? The advances, Jerry catching them, her being sacked? Angry - and the car being at the hospital? Jerry and his hunger, her getting him to eat the cereal? The reconciliation? Asking him to apologise to the manager to get her job back? The irony of the ending, the discovery of the fraud, her being re-employed, getting back-pay, her doing courses and becoming the supermarket manager?

14.Enid and the work in the shop, kindly towards Sid, trying on the furs, giving him the number of the safe, her visits and attraction, their being together at the end?

15.Laurie, her age, neighbour to Russ, communication through the windows, her seeing Ed and the trousers? The sexual relationship? Her hopes to go to California - her making the booking and Russ's irascible reaction to his life being controlled? Any future for the two of them?

16.The encounter with the armoured truck going out of control, discovering that the guard had had a heart attack, their efforts to get him out, take him to the hospital, drive the truck to the shop? The aftermath and their being heroes? Their true moral stance?

17.The plan for the robbery of the armoured car, looking at the movie on video? Their discussions in the restaurant, motivations and pressures, willing and unwilling? The imagining it (and the visuals of the exploding truck etc)? The drilling of the hole - and the black irony of Sid killing the dog with the drill? The chase and Ed following them, swerving and his flat tyre? The armoured car not stopping as expected, trying to head it off, crashing into the back? Opening the door - and finding the old guard and his running off with the money? Russ and his having the real gun, tempted to shoot, aiming at the guard but not firing?

18.The incidental characters and the ironic humour - the old man in the rain going home in the car, the two old men in the back of the car complaining about the dogs?

19.The atmosphere of futility about the lives of the trio? The failure of the robbery? The irony of the police coming and rounding them all up? The humour of the acclaim, the speeches, Russ exasperated at losing $30,000? Their future?

20.A portrait of ordinary people and temptations and struggles? Done with insight, humour and sympathy?