Suggests that Burns' initial promise has almost completely dissipated - this movie has barely a single line that rings true, and no wit whatsoever; the characters emote in dreadful cliches. Burns hasn't progressed at all as a writer or director: the movie is awful at generating a sense of place - the town remains an enigma despite his supposed roots there (take the bar scene one crowded night as the camera moves over various people gossiping and bitching - it has no pizzazz; it's flat and feels studio-bound and sterile). Beautiful Girls comes to mind as a more authentic evocation of this kind of blue-collar environment. Thematically too the film has no worthwhile ideas, and numerous plot lines remain unresolved - presumably because the movie was never really interested in all the little things it threw in to generate a sense of buzz and emotional breadth (like the friend who makes a pass at Jovi during the night he's out searching for Holly). The finale makes a mountain out of a decision that barely amounts to a molehill.
Review of No Looking Back
No Looking Back
(1998)
Suggests that Burns' initial promise has almost completely dissipated
15 October 1999