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Bright Lights, Big City

Play trailer 1:27 Poster for Bright Lights, Big City R 1988 1h 50m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
57% Tomatometer 21 Reviews 38% Popcornmeter 5,000+ Ratings
In this adaptation of Jay McInerney's novel, Jamie Conway (Michael J. Fox) moves from small-town Kansas to New York City to work at a magazine. However, a number of things are making him miserable: He would rather be a writer, his wife (Phoebe Cates) has left him and his mother (Dianne Wiest) has recently died. So he takes to partying with his yuppie friend Tad (Kiefer Sutherland), abusing alcohol and cocaine. But he quickly finds himself becoming more and more dependent on drinking and drugs.

Critics Reviews

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Janet Maslin New York Times 05/20/2003
3.5/5
Mr. Bridges may not have breathed fire into this material, but he has preserved most of its better qualities. He has treated it with intelligence, respect and no undue reverence, assembling a coherent film that resists any hint of exploitation. Go to Full Review
Hal Hinson Washington Post 01/01/2000
The movie is like a Porsche outfitted with a lawn mower engine; there's not even enough juice to get the machine out of the driveway. Go to Full Review
Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times 01/01/2000
3.5/4
Fox is very good in the central role (he has a long drunken monologue that is the best thing he has ever done in a movie). Go to Full Review
John Powers L.A. Weekly 08/21/2024
For despite its glitzy subject matter, the story is utterly conventional. Go to Full Review
Kathi Maio Sojourner 08/29/2019
Bright Lights, Big City is no worse than most movies that present a selfindulgent, self-pitying WASP male view of the world. Go to Full Review
Cathy Burke United Press International 08/23/2016
Jamie may be less articulate and inspired than Holden Caulfield, but he seems as genuine a spokesman for his time. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Blu B Nov 7 It's a melodrama about a young adult trying to navigate a job he doesn't like, struggling writing, coke problems, romance, his wife left him, dying Mom, troubled relationships, and trying to make it all work or find answers in the late 80's NYC. That's the plot and it never in the slightest figures out a way to take these elements or subplots and make it into a functional cohesive narrative. It just jumps around between each of them. The acting, cinemaotgraphy, and soundtrack is alright. Fox is giving it his all but it just goes nowhere. Alot of it is just people talking and griping and while the direction isn't bad there's only so much you can do without a narrative before it just gets boring. The Mom is the best thing and is great, wish there would've been more of that. Everything else is subpar. The best way also to describe the strucutre here is this is basically at best the first 40% of a regular movie and this film stretches that out over the entire runtime while doing it poorly. It goes nowhere, is boring to look at, and despite setting up a complex multilayered character with all the right elements there it never makes into anything. Skip this. Just very forgettable, boring, and a whole lot of nothing. See more 04/01/2023 It's a big city with bright lights but that doesn't mean everything is shining brightly The late James Bridges directs Michael J. Fox, Kiefer Sutherland, and Phoebe Cates Jaime is miserable having moved to NYC from Kansas; he would rather be a writer than be at his job, is divorced from his fast-rising model wife, and his mother just passed away He hangs with his buddy Tad drowning in alcohol and drugs His dependency starts increasing too as his many one-night stands with hundreds of women How will he turns things around for the better? A lot of this is just Fox moseying and moping around unable to face his own problems It's quite unremarkable There isn't enough energy to get things in motion See more Cutter75 03/12/2023 First watched this movie when I was 13 and hated it watched it again at 34 and really appreciated it See more Shioka O 10/23/2022 It was kinda boring, I prefer Casualties of War for the non comical J.Fox because I think it worked well. Soundtrack and score is pure 80s. Smooth visual. See more 07/27/2022 If you read the novel, this movie is a disappointment based on the main fact that it starts 108 pages in. I personally enjoyed and would have like to seen play out on screen some of the first half of the book. This was shocking since the author worked on the screen play. Casting was great and Michael J Fox did a fantastic dramatic performance. Overall the movie felt like it was over too quickly and didn't really go anywhere. See more steve d 07/12/2020 Fox isn't a good enough actor to make it work. See more Read all reviews
Bright Lights, Big City

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Movie Info

Synopsis In this adaptation of Jay McInerney's novel, Jamie Conway (Michael J. Fox) moves from small-town Kansas to New York City to work at a magazine. However, a number of things are making him miserable: He would rather be a writer, his wife (Phoebe Cates) has left him and his mother (Dianne Wiest) has recently died. So he takes to partying with his yuppie friend Tad (Kiefer Sutherland), abusing alcohol and cocaine. But he quickly finds himself becoming more and more dependent on drinking and drugs.
Director
James Bridges
Producer
Sydney Pollack, Mark Rosenberg
Screenwriter
Jay McInerney
Production Co
United Artists, Mirage Enterprises
Rating
R
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Oct 1, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA)
$15.7M
Runtime
1h 50m
Sound Mix
Surround