Review of American Heart (1992) by Carlos R — 18 Sep 2011

This beautiful film lives up perfectly to its title: it's got a great heart. It shows the street's reality in an excellent way, and above all with a lot of realism. Realism is perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this film.

The characters feel real, they live in a world pictured with realism and helped by a fantastic script, the movie is simply fascinating. It's simple... yes, but it's an excellently made drama, with marvelous performances, specially Jeff Bridges who gave an Oscar-worthy performance but sadly the Academy forgot about him that year, besides the very little difusion this film had and still has.

The deepness and intensity in the portrayal of the father-son relationship was one of the biggest accomplishments of this movie; and that aspect was probably the best I've seen in a film. I was lucky to catch it up on a cable channel and I was delighted with the quality of this little-but-great film.

If I had to point out something not-so-good about it, it'd had to be the ending's resolution, which was a bit easy; but it doesn't take merit from the rest. Edward Furlong's performance is one of a kind too, and he is definitely one of the best if not the best young actor I've ever seen.

.. but sadly we've all seen what his career has become in the past 12 years. Very moving.