LOST IN YONKERS has more going for it than most movies: solid filmmaking, from script to final cut; topnotch, flawless performances by an outstanding cast; humor and drama of the highest order. Dreyfuss is incapable of a bad performance; Mercedes Ruehl holds her own (perhaps even outshining Dreyfuss in this instance); Irene Worth is the living, breathing embodiment of The Survivor- hard as steel, perhaps, but not without good reason(s); and David Strathairn as the hapless Johnny is to be pitied, to be sure- but it's the two boys, Jay (the late Brad Stoll, in a winning turn) and Arty (Mike Damus, in a performance so nuanced that it belies his years), through whose eyes we see it all, who steal the show. With direction like this (by Martha Coolidge), it COULDN'T fail. Check it out.
Review of Lost in Yonkers
