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<\/p>\n\n\tOn April 1, 1988, United Artists released Bright Lights, Big City, an adaptation of the buzzy Jay McInerney novel, in theaters. The Michael J. Fox starrer went on to gross $16 million. The Hollywood Reporter\u2019s original review is below:<\/p>\n
\n\tSometimes it\u2019s just better to call in sick: That\u2019s what Michael J. Fox concludes on one of his coke-binge days in Bright Lights, Big City, and what this frantic adaptation of Jay McInerney\u2019s best seller might have done. McInerney fans may take a few sniffs opening weekend, and Fox fans may hole up for a couple weeks of curious glances, but Bright Lights boxoffice prospects seem mighty dim.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhile more than Less Than Zero, this down-slide chronicle is less than compelling. Its strongest suit is Michael J. Fox who stars as an aspiring novelist, toiling away as a fact verifier for a snooty New York magazine. With his just-off-the-Corn-Flakes-box fresh looks and bouncy resilience, the energetic Fox is an engaging and likeable protagonist.<\/p>\n
\n\tBored with his tedious job, flattened by a wife (Phoebe Cates) who has cavalierly deserted him, the spry little guy is feeling the punches. Coked to the gills and exhausted by his fast-line life, the responsible and ambitious young writer is literally killing himself with cocaine, trying to keep up with a parastic friend (Kiefer Sutherland) who gets started every night around bar time.<\/p>\n
\n\tFox\u2019s life is figuratively going down the toilet, where he, not surprisingly, spends much of his time lining out: He\u2019s losing it on all fronts, screwing up at work and neglecting his personal life. The plucky kid who seemingly had a fast-track job and a beyond-dreams wife is now desperately snorting it all away.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhile Bright Lights is a clinically sound and narratively solid depiction of a sickness, this movie adaptation lacks the novel\u2019s deliciously acerbic descriptions of New York\u2019s sick social scene as well as its protagonist\u2019s self-aware commentaries. Despite a juicily disturbed subplot involving a tabloid \u201ccoma baby,\u201d whose ghastly predicament is wickedly counterpointed with Fox\u2019s own sickness, Bright Lights is a surprisingly bland offering.<\/p>\n
\n\tYet, where Bright Lights shines, and where its intermittent power lies, is with Fox\u2019s wonderfully resilient performance. Remarkably strong and decidedly decent, he\u2019s able to charm and bluff his way through the terrors of his addiction. As he slips and slides, even when bottomed out, Fox is completely sympathetic and engaging. Indeed, this dichotomy within Fox\u2019s character \u2014 that the strength that allows him to rebound is also the source of his spiraling disease \u2014 is astutely conveyed in Jay Mclnerney\u2019s shrewdly developed screenplay. His raging sickness is realistically captured under James Bridges\u2019 character-sensitive direction. <\/p>\n
\n\tNevertheless, Bridges, while eliciting strong performances from his well-chosen cast, has patched together a decidedly innocuous portrait of this horrifying disease. Visually and viscerally, Bright Lights is about as captivating and unremarkable as municipal building artwork. Even the daily abrasions of living in New York, including Fox\u2019s forays into the mind-numbing night life, seem unexpectedly pedestrian.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn essence, Bright Lights, Big City, instead of being emotionally provoking and riveting, is distressingly gray and tedious, enlivened only by Fox\u2019s gifted histrionics.<\/p>\n
\n\tSurrounding Fox\u2019s keen central performance are a number of skilled and sensitive portrayals, in particular Swoosie Kurtz, as a lonely co-worker who is genuinely concerned about her young cohort\u2019s well-being. In one languid, literary and lethally liquid lunch, Jason Robards gives a wonderful multimartini turn as a burned-out editor, while Keifer Sutherland is splendidly charming and callous as Fox\u2019s so-called friend.<\/p>\n
\n\tJohn Houseman tippy toes briefly as a dry old bean and stuffy grammarian, emblematic of the stultified staff at Fox\u2019s magazine of employment; unfortunately, Houseman\u2019s marvelously fussy presence is only one of the film\u2019s intermittent garnishes, most of which are never developed and never pay off. \u2014 Duane Byrge, originally published on March 31, 1988. <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tKiefer Sutherland, Phoebe Cates and Michael J. Fox in 1988\u2019s \u2018Bright Lights, Big City.\u2019<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUnited Artists\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On April 1, 1988, United Artists released Bright Lights, Big City, an adaptation of the buzzy Jay McInerney…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[159233,88,206],"class_list":{"0":"post-560013","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-classic-reviews","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}