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Bright Lights, Big City Customer Reviews (1 - 3 of 17 Reviews)

Bright stars, small gem
James Bridges (Urban Cowboy) directs Michael J. Fox (Back To The Future), Phoebe Cates (Fast Times At Ridgemont High), and Keifer Sutherland (The Lost Boys, Stand By Me) in this overlooked 80's movie about a man's struggle with a dark past and the overwhelmingly hysterical cocaine-driven nightlife of New York City.

Fox plays Jamie Conway, a struggling writer and editor in a small time magazine, who has just been dumped by his big shot model wife Amanda and is still mourning the death of his mother from cancer a year ago. He's also concerned with a newspaper article following the tragic events of a pregnant woman in coma simply because it reminds him of the last conversation between him and his dying mother about how painful it was for her to give birth to him because he "didn't want to get out".

The events of the movie pursue Jamie on his manic pursuit of Amanda and the fact that he feels used and terribly upset with the way she left him, and his dreadful shortcomings at work that cost him his job. The main focus of the movie however is how addicted Jamie gets to cocaine and the negative results it has on his health. Keifer Sutherland plays Aligash, a suave businessman who joins Jamie in the crazy nightlife scene and ends up hooking him up with a woman that seems to be what Jamie was looking for for a long time.

Although the movie might seem plotless, it captures a certain vibe that you can't seem to pull away from. It's also very interesting to see Fox play a character that totally defines the complete opposite of what Marty McFly is.

Bright Lights, Big City features cameo appearances by high profile actors like John Houseman, Sam Robards, and Dianne Wiest.

Recommended

B

It all went up his nose, and we parted with our cash for this too!
Michael J Fox stared in a few movies in the 80s about being a yuppie in New York. While in The Secret of My Success he was a lovable yuppie scum from Kansas, here he is a not so lovable yuppie scum from Kansas who is absorbed in the heady nightlife of cocaine and all that was New York in the 80s. He is in despair, as his job is going downhill, his wife has left him, there are no friends to be found, and it's all falling apart.

It's hard for me to feel sympathy for someone like this. He made choices to live this way. His use of drugs was not the result of abuse, desperation or being forced into doing something he didn't want to do, it was the result of his own choices. His wife left him because she doesn't want to watch him go down. His friends are not really his friends, and he is loosing footing with his job. "What? Me? Get up and go to work? I don't like the way you said that, I'm not going." And the coke straw says "You know you're right." Michael J Fox seems to be someone who has had a lot of advantages in life and he is throwing them away for the next high. I've watched many friends ruin their lives with this, and none of them are my friends anymore because of their choices. I choose to live in happiness, to be in the light, and to be responsible enough to support myself. Guess what? That's cool and they're not.

Why not one star? In terms of a cinematic achievement, they were able to capture the paranoia and upset that is cocain addiction so the audience is able to experience it for themselves. A few movies have been able to achieve this, such as Good Fellas and Boogie Nights, and this movie for that alone has fallen into the slush pile. Michael J Fox had his own addictions he was able to overcome, I wonder what happened to a lot of those people this movie was about from the 80s.

Bright Lights, Big Sh*tty
Some people may think it's difficult to watch a movie where the lead spends almost the entire film being a jerk and snorting his paycheck - but stick with this one and you witness Michael J. Fox reaching his (sort of) salvation. The score is outstanding 80's, especially the Donald Fagen version of the title song and the closing number.
Watch for a great cameo by Jason Robards and the painful reward given to Keefer Sutherland.

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