''New Jersey Drive'' is a 1995

crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

film written and directed by

Nick Gomez Nick Gomez (born April 13, 1963) is an American film director and writer. He has directed for a number of television and film. His first feature-length film was the 1992 movie ''Laws of Gravity'', which won awards at both the Berlin Internation ...

and executive produced by

Spike Lee Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, has produced more than 35 films since 1983. He made his directorial debut ...

. The film is about joyriding teenagers in 1990s

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.car theft Motor vehicle theft (also known as a car theft and, in the United States, grand theft auto) is the criminal act of stealing or attempting to steal a motor vehicle. Nationwide in the United States in 2020, there were 810,400 vehicles reported ...

capital of the world". The film was an official selection at the 1995

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

Cast

Production

Director Nick Gomez originally pictured the film taking place in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

or Washington Heights in Manhattan, but ultimately set his sights on Newark after reading about teenagers and

joyriding Joyriding refers to driving or riding in a stolen vehicle, most commonly a car, with no particular goal other than the pleasure or thrill of doing so or to impress other people. The term "Joy Riding" was coined by a New York judge in 1908. Joy ...

in several articles by ''The New York Times''. In an on-location interview, he stated that he himself used to steal cars for joyrides as a teenager in a working-class neighborhood in Boston, where he previously lived. Upon seeking permission to shoot the film in the city of Newark itself, city officials would not give permission to film in the city limits. Therefore, locations in Williamsburg,

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

and

Glendale Glendale is the anglicised version of the Gaelic Gleann Dail, which means ''valley of fertile, low-lying arable land''. It may refer to: Places Australia * Glendale, New South Wales ** Stockland Glendale, a shopping centre *Glendale, Queensland, ...

Queens, New York Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long I ...

were chosen. Ironically, director Gomez stated that even if he had been granted permission, he still would have shot some scenes in Brooklyn since it was more conveniently located near his home and film studio in Manhattan. Filming commenced in late March 1994 and concluded on May 16 of that year. Gomez had mixed thoughts about the finished film, explaining that though he was given a significantly larger budget than his directorial debut film '' Laws of Gravity'', studio heads at

Universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal ** Universal TV, a ...

, which then had a partnership with Spike Lee's production company 40 Acres and a Mule, felt the script for ''New Jersey Drive'' contained elements that were too "germane to the basic thrust of the story. They wanted to push the more obvious

action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

moments. There was also a lot of talk about narrative signposts and that kind of thing, which I just don't understand." The budget for the production was reduced from $8 million to $5 million, and though Gomez thought about taking the project to a different company, he was already 5 months long into developing the screenplay and did not want to have to start all over again somewhere else. However, Gomez did not completely disown the film, saying "The film is mine, and every decision and every compromise that had to made along the way was my decision, for better or for worse."

Soundtrack

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 holds a rating of 64% from 14 reviews. The film received critical acclaim for its realism and naturalistic performances.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

gave the film three out of four stars, praising Gomez's "good ear for dialogue" and writing of his characters. He added, "The movie is expert on how cars are stolen (it takes about 10 seconds). It is also expert on how a smart and essentially prudent kid ends up inside a lot of stolen cars and gets into a lot of trouble." Ebert's colleague

Gene Siskel Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the ''Chicago Tribune''. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted a series of movie review programs on television from 1975 until his d ...

of the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'' also gave a positive review, calling it "A thoughtful, dense and ultimately sad mosaic of street life that communicates one idea very well—that a lot of street crime...derives from precious few alternatives." Siskel noted, "Director Nick Gomez fades in and out of scenes of carjackers and joy rides that escalate quite naturally into deadly trips. To the film's credit, the lasting memory is of more than just a brutal, rogue white cop."

References

External links