''My New Gun'' is a 1992 American

black comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the old ...

directed by

Stacy Cochran Stacy Cochran is an American film director, screenwriter and producer based in New York City. She is best known for her films ''My New Gun'' (1992) and ''Boys'' (1996). Personal life Cochran was born in Passaic, New Jersey. She graduated from ...

. It stars

Diane Lane Diane Colleen Lane (born January 22, 1965) is an American actress. Born and raised in New York City, Lane made her screen debut at age 14 in George Roy Hill's 1979 film '' A Little Romance''. The two films that could have catapulted her to st ...

, James Le Gros,

Stephen Collins Stephen Weaver Collins (born October 1, 1947) is an American former actor and writer. He is known for playing Eric Camden on the television series '' 7th Heaven'' from 1996 to 2007. Afterwards, Collins played the roles of Dayton King on the ABC ...

, and

Tess Harper Tessie Jean Harper (''née'' Washam; born August 15, 1950) is an American actress. She was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her first film role in 1983's '' Tender Mercies'', and for the Academy Award for B ...

, and also features an early minor role for

Philip Seymour Hoffman Philip Seymour Hoffman (July 23, 1967 – February 2, 2014) was an American actor. Known for his distinctive supporting and character roles—typically lowlifes, eccentrics, underdogs, and misfits—he acted in many films and theatrical produ ...

Plot

A New Jersey doctor named Gerald buys his trophy wife, Debbie, a revolver against her wishes. Trouble ensues when their eccentric slacker neighbor, Skippy, takes the gun and doesn't want to give it back. After an accident lands Gerald in the hospital, it's up to Debbie to get the gun back (and try to figure out why Skippy wanted to borrow it in the first place). But things get a little more complicated…

Cast

Production

''My New Gun'' was shot on a budget of $2.1 million, financed from IRS Media and Columbia-TriStar HomeVideo. It was shot on location in

Teaneck, New Jersey Teaneck () is a township in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a bedroom community in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the township's population was 39,776, reflecting an increase of 516 (+1.3%) f ...

, and a townhouse was used for the interior of multiple homes.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

the film has an approval rating of 50% based on reviews from 6 critics.

Terrence Rafferty Terrence Rafferty is a film critic who wrote regularly for ''The New Yorker'' during the 1990s. His writing has also appeared in '' Slate'', ''The Atlantic Monthly'', ''The Village Voice'', ''The Nation'', and ''The New York Times''. For a number ...

of ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' praised Cochran's directorial debut, writing that "The assurance she shows in handling even a brief expository scene is astonishing. ..This film school graduate has a kind of 'technique' that can't be taught. ..The sort of liberation that ''My New Gun'' proposes, and embodies, is the product of a true filmmaker's vision". The film was praised by another critic for its "masterfully understated structure" and eccentricities, which some considered to be influenced by ''

Thelma and Louise Thelma is a female given name. It was popularized by Victorian writer Marie Corelli who gave the name to the title character of her 1887 novel ''Thelma''. It may be related to a Greek word meaning "will, volition" see ''thelema''). Note that altho ...

'' or an update of Henrik Ibsen's ''

A Doll's House ''A Doll's House'' ( Danish and nb, Et dukkehjem; also translated as ''A Doll House'') is a three-act play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It premiered at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 21 December 1879, having be ...

''.

Emanuel Levy Emanuel Levy is an American film critic and professor who has taught at Columbia University, New School for Social Research, Wellesley College, Arizona State University and UCLA Film School. Levy currently teaches in the department of cinema ...

has noted the way in which "the gifted director Stacy Cochran examines suburbia in a manner devoid of the usually nasty, mean-spirited approach to the subject", and unlike other downtown New York films, it "displays no irony or condescension; yet its quirkily laconic, minimalist perspective goes against expectations."

References

External links

* {{Stacy Cochran 1992 films 1992 independent films 1990s black comedy films American black comedy films American independent films American satirical films Films directed by Stacy Cochran Films set in New Jersey Films shot in New Jersey I.R.S. Media films 1992 directorial debut films 1992 comedy films 1990s English-language films 1990s American films