My New Gun

{{Infobox film

| name = My New Gun

| image = My New Gun.jpg

| caption = Theatrical release poster

| director = Stacy Cochran

| producer = Michael Flynn

| writer = Stacy Cochran

| narrator =

| starring = {{plainlist|

}}

| music = Pat Irwin

| cinematography = Edward Lachman

| editing = Camilla Toniolo

| studio = IRS Media

| distributor = IRS Media

| released = {{Film date|1992|10|26}}

| runtime = 99 minutes

| country = United States

| language = English

| budget = $2.1 million

}}

My New Gun is a 1992 American black comedy film written and directed by Stacy Cochran in her debut.{{Cite web |title=My New Gun (1992) |url=https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/MovieDetails/59339 |access-date=May 17, 2023 |website=AFI Catalog of Feature Films}} It stars Diane Lane, James Le Gros, Stephen Collins, and Tess Harper, and also features an early minor role for Philip Seymour Hoffman.{{cite news|last=Oliver|first=David|title=Timeline: The life of Philip Seymour Hoffman|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2014/02/02/philip-seymour-hoffman-timeline/5163785/|newspaper=USA Today|accessdate=17 February 2014|date=2 February 2014}}

Plot

A New Jersey doctor named Gerald buys his trophy wife, Debbie, a revolver against her wishes.{{cite book|last1=Allon|first1=Yoram|last2=Cullen|first2=Del|last3=Patterson|first3=Hannah|title=Contemporary North American Film Directors: A Wallflower Critical Guide|url=https://archive.org/details/contemporarynort00yora|url-access=registration|year=2002|publisher=Wallflower Press|isbn=978-1-903364-52-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/contemporarynort00yora/page/89 89]}} 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 took it in the first place.

Cast

{{Cast listing|

Diane Lane as Debbie Bender
James Le Gros as Skippy
Stephen Collins as Gerald Bender
Tess Harper as Kimmy Hayes
Bruce Altman as Irwin Bloom
Maddie Corman as Myra
Bill Raymond as Andrew
Suzzy Roche as Checkout Girl
Philip Seymour Hoffman as Chris
Patti Chambers as Janice Phee
Stephen Pearlman as Al Schlyen
Leslie Brett Daniels as Waitress
Paul J.Q. Lee as Desk Manager
Angela Marie Baker as Maid at Ramada
Kent Gash as Bell Hop

}}

Production

My New Gun was shot on a budget of $2.1 million, financed from IRS Media{{Cite news |last=McCreadie |first=Marsha |date=October 25, 1992 |title=FILM; 'My New Gun' Hits Its Maker's Target |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/25/archives/film-my-new-gun-hits-its-makers-target.html |access-date=November 3, 2022 |issn=0362-4331}} and Columbia-TriStar Home Video. It was shot on location in Teaneck, New Jersey, and a townhouse was used for the interior of multiple homes.

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 43% based on reviews from 7 critics.{{cite web |title=My New Gun |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/my_new_gun |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=2021-08-01}}

Terrence Rafferty of The New Yorker 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".{{cite magazine|url=http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/film/my_new_gun_cochran|title=My New Gun|last=Rafferty|first=Terence|magazine=The New Yorker|access-date=18 February 2014|archive-date=22 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222225305/http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/film/my_new_gun_cochran|url-status=dead}}

The film was praised by another critic for its "masterfully understated structure" and eccentricities, which some considered to be influenced by Thelma and Louise or an update of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House.

Emanuel Levy 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."{{cite book|last=Levy|first=Emanuel|title=Cinema of Outsiders: The Rise of American Independent Film|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L_j3ninWUdsC&pg=PA393|year=2001|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=978-0-8147-5124-4|page=393}}