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An edgy mix of the wryly cynical and the innocently fresh, Stacy Cochran's feature debut is another true gem from the vital American independent scene. Selected to play in Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival, My New Gun is a hip and quirky satire set in dangerously suburban New Jersey.
Housewife Debbie (Diane Lane) and husband Gerald are spending the evening with friends who are announcing their engagement. To mark the occasion Irwin gives his teenage bride-to-be a diamond ring and personally engraved revolver. Debbie is horrified, but not as much as when Gerald presents her with a gun of her own. Increasingly enthralled with her latest, fatal fashion accessory, the weapon triggers off a series of outrageous events and the film becomes a tale of life out of (gun) control! Romance arrives when Debbie meets terminally zoned out newcomer to the neighbourhood, Skippy (James LeGros — Drugstore Cowboy, Point Break, The Rapture — won Best Actor Award at the Vevey International Comedy Film Festival for his exuberant characterisation). She then hits the proverbial American road, in a borrowed convertible, on a deranged trip to a surprising finale. Pretty much everyday life in the nineties!
Unlike other films of its type My New Gun never becomes too 'cool' for its own (or the audience's) good, but walks a fine line between deadpan, inspired wit, intelligent performances and the shady side of the 'urban surreal' street.