My New Gun

Debbie (Diane Lane) is the wife of a blandly good-looking doctor (Stephen Collins), and lives in a New Jersey suburb where the houses back up to a golf course and all look the same. She has an offbeat yet friendly goofball neighbor named Skippy (James LeGros), but that's about the only weird thing that intrudes on her pastel-perfect life. That is, until her husband brings home a handgun--for her own protection, of course--and then things get very chaotic very quickly. Skippy "borrows" the handgun for purposes unknown, Debbie's husband shoots himself in the foot (and gets food poisoning to boot), and suddenly Debbie finds her life turned upside down by Skippy's mysterious motivations, which turn decidedly romantic. Plus, it looks as if somebody wants to do Skippy and his space-cadet mother (Tess Harper) serious harm, and Debbie may be in the way.

Stacy Cochran's debut feature is a wonderful slice of independent-film life, back in the days of the early '90s, when independent movies were about quirky characters and amiably meandering plots, not about sexy, slicked-up "Will it sell at Sundance?" panache. Her deadpan writing and directing style is reminiscent of cult fave Hal Hartley, but without the willful and calculated weirdness. My New Gun is more organic, the plot slowly growing out of the wry situations and idiosyncratic characters, from protoslacker Skippy, whom LeGros invests with boy-next-door sweetness and slightly dangerous sexiness, to Debbie's lone female friend, Myra (Maddie Corman), a blushing bride-to-be who can't even drink alcohol at her own wedding reception. As Debbie, Lane (the model turned actress of The Outsiders and Rumble Fish) gives a standout performance of one woman's awakening to her less-than-perfect life. This film marked a new beginning for an underrated actress who consistently delivers spellbinding performances (A Walk on the Moon, Lonesome Dove)--she's a phenomenal talent to watch. And look for Philip Seymour Hoffman (Magnolia) in a small part as Skippy's fast-food coworker. --Mark Englehart