The Low Life

R

1995

1 hr. 36 min.

Drama

List

56%

9 Reviews

Tomatometer

38%

100+ Ratings

Audience Score

An aspiring Los Angeles writer (Rory Cochrane) works at a menial job, lives in a dumpy apartment and has a breakdown.

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Audience Member

Well I can see why no one else has seen this. Kyra Sedgwick is as bafflingly obnoxious as always. Something about that woman just annoys the fuck out of me regardless of what she plays or how she plays it. It just dawned on me: She's the female version of Nicolas Cage, who I also loathe for reasons I'm still incapable of explaining. It all suddenly makes sense!

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/19/23

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Audience Member

I absloutley love this movie

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/07/23

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Audience Member

I'm not sure what it is that make people admire and relate to movies about failure. Well, wait, I take that back. People like to watch other people fail because doing so let them indulge either their sadistic schadenfreude ("these people fail in the ways I don't") or their masochistic melancholy ("these people fail in the same ways I do"). What I really don't get is the appeal of watching movies where the failure is unmitigated by success or redemption of any kind, where the attempt of art to mirror life mistakenly becomes a portrayal of only the negative side of that life. The main characters of The Low Life are a collection of slackers, misfits, and also-rans who, upon finding that life (or Los Angeles) was not going to hand them their dreams on a silver platter, decide to settle for passionless, boring and unambitious existences. Would-be-writer John (Rory Cochrane) is emotionless and withdrawn, his friends complain like whining children, and his potential love interest can't or won't remove herself from an unending cycle of rich but creepy potential husbands whom she could never really love. Nearly everyone in the movie is self-absorbed to the point of near-blindness. And the one character who manages to stay unselfish and positive in the face of his own failures--John's roommate Andrew (Sean Astin)--is not only socially maladjusted to the point of annoying everyone, but is eventually killed in a random car wreck and mourned by all of three people, his parents and John. There have been other movies that explore the hopeless grind of an unfulfilling life or the frustration of dreams that just won't come true, and been successful and popular in doing so. But most of those movies were either supposed to be funny (Office Space), redemptive (American Beauty), or both (Swingers). The Low Life had the benefit of a strong cast (Astin and Kyra Sedgewick are two bright spots), but its characters' blase negativity, bitter boredom, spoiled whining and unsatisfying routines end up making the audience almost as bored as they are.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/26/23

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Audience Member

Interesting characters and dialogue.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/30/23

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Audience Member

This film is the embodiment of generation x independent cinema, with it's witty dialogue, underlying sense of complete hopelessness and it's gritty depiction of life in LA.Astin gives a career defining performance, balanced perfectly by the emotionless acting of Cochrane. Everyone who is under the age of twenty two should watch this movie.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/25/23

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Audience Member

Sean Astin's superbly moving performance nearly saves this flick.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/25/23

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George Hickenlooper

Director

Rory Cochrane

John

Kyra Sedgwick

Bevan

Ron Livingston

Chad

Christian J. Meoli

Leonard

Sara Melson

Suzie

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Kevin Thomas

Los Angeles Times

A modest but deeply felt film with a solid ensemble cast.

Apr 9, 2002

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Steve Davis

Austin Chronicle

There's something beguiling about The Low Life.

Rated: 3/5

Apr 9, 2002

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Stephen Holden

New York Times

The movie belongs to Astin, who brings to the role of Andrew the same intense burning-eyed sincerity with which he imbued the title role of a football-obsessed Notre Dame student in Rudy.

Apr 9, 2002

Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Rated: 2/5

Jul 4, 2005

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Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

Sean Astin's superbly moving performance nearly saves this flick.

Rated: C+

Feb 10, 2004

Full Review

Jonathan R. Perry

Tyler Morning Telegraph (Texas)

Preternaturally sleazy but strangely watchable.

Rated: 2/5

Aug 3, 2002

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Synopsis

An aspiring Los Angeles writer (Rory Cochrane) works at a menial job, lives in a dumpy apartment and has a breakdown.

Director: George Hickenlooper
Rating: R
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): May 23, 2015
Box Office (Gross USA): $40.9K
Sound Mix: Stereo, Surround