dvd of the week
Nick Flynn’s memoir, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City is a lyrical and harrowing tale of alcoholism, homelessness, redemption, and the artist’s life; and there’s probably no way that it could have survived the trip to the screen without losing some of its charm. Being Flynn, Paul Weitz’s sturdy and moving adaptation, is nowhere near as good as the book, and it couldn’t be. Paul Dano plays Nick, a wayward young man who falls into a job at the homeless shelter while he’s trying to find himself. Robert De Niro is Nick’s absentee, alcoholic and slightly insane father who reappears in Nick’s life, disappears, and then reappears in the shelter. I’m a sucker for father-son stories, and this one made me cry. Dano is particularly smart, sympathetic and subtle, and De Niro is better than he has been in 20 years.
