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Movies / On DVD / Big Bad Love
Big Bad Love

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Big Bad Love (2002)

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41 %
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Reviews Counted: 58

Fresh: 24

Rotten:34

Average Rating: 5.4/10

Consensus: A boozy depiction of a struggling writer, Big Bad Love is too messy and self-indulgent.

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for language and some sexuality

Runtime: 1 hr 51 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:Feb 22, 2002 Limited

Synopsis: BIG BAD LOVE brings to life the characters that populate Mississippi writer Larry Brown's short story collection of the same name. Leon Barlow (Arliss Howard) is a writer with a compulsion to drink... BIG BAD LOVE brings to life the characters that populate Mississippi writer Larry Brown's short story collection of the same name. Leon Barlow (Arliss Howard) is a writer with a compulsion to drink and a bathroom wall papered with his rejection letters. Powered by endless cases of beer, an undying desire for his estranged wife (Debra Winger), and his Vietnam War buddy Monroe (Paul Le Mat), he continually plugs away at his manual typewriter, full of anger and limitless hope that he will sell a story. Leon is suddenly forced to rethink his way of life, though, when tragedy strikes both a close friend and his young daughter. An obvious labor of love by writer/director/star Howard and producer/star (and wife of Howard) Debra Winger, BIG BAD LOVE succeeds at capturing the life the struggling writer, the fractured thought processes of the alcoholic, and the languorous pace of life in the rural south. Howard turns in a mannered, passionate performance, and the too-seldom seen Winger and Le Mat are both very welcome screen presences. Striking cinematography and a painstakingly chosen soundtrack also add greatly to this rewarding tale of friendship, tragedy, addiction, and ambition. [More]

Starring: Arliss Howard, Debra Winger, Rosanna Arquette, Paul Le Mat

Starring: Arliss Howard, Debra Winger, Rosanna Arquette, Paul Le Mat, Angie Dickinson, Sigourney Weaver, Michael Parks, Larry Brown, Matt Mitchell

Director: Arliss Howard

Director: Arliss Howard
Screenwriter: Arliss Howard, Jim Howard
Producer: Debra Winger
Composer: Tom Waits
Studio: IFC Films

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Release:

Sep 24, 2002

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Reviews for Big Bad Love

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Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review | comment Comment
08/07/08
Mark Halverson
Sacramento News & Review

This ambitious drama about a Vietnam vet trying to create fiction out of his troubled life and former marriage (to Debra Winger) is messy, rambling, and overlong.

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
04/12/06
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

No review available.

comment Comment
07/23/05
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Zap2it.com | comment Comment
02/24/04
Michael Szymanski
Zap2it.com
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: FilmStew.com | comment Comment
02/01/04
FilmStew.com

Makes you wish you'd stayed at home with a book -- preferably one of Larry Brown's.

Full Review Source: About.com | comment Comment
10/16/03
Jurgen Fauth
About.com

The very definition of what critics have come to term an “ambitious failure.”

Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
03/22/03
David Nusair
Apollo Guide

Ultimately a failed actor's piece...

Full Review Source: ToxicUniverse.com | comment Comment
02/07/03
Keith Uhlich
ToxicUniverse.com

Offhand, if you'd like to see some great imagery about writing, then you should by all means rent this and skip to the good parts.

Full Review Source: Needcoffee.com | comment Comment
11/25/02
Widgett Walls
Needcoffee.com

A flawed effort at best, but intriguing nonetheless.

Full Review Source: San Diego Metropolitan | comment Comment
10/21/02
Jean Lowerison
San Diego Metropolitan

The worst kind of independent; the one where actors play dress down hicks and ponderously mope around trying to strike lightning as captured by their 1970s predecessors

Full Review Source: Matinee Magazine | comment Comment
09/26/02
Jason Clark
Matinee Magazine

The movie's best asset is Howard's filmmaking.

Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor | comment Comment
09/26/02
David Sterritt
Christian Science Monitor

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: EricDSnider.com | comment Comment
09/18/02
Eric D. Snider
EricDSnider.com
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Denver Rocky Mountain News | comment Comment
08/09/02
Robert Denerstein
Denver Rocky Mountain News
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A mess, but it's a sincere mess.

Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly | comment Comment
08/08/02
Manohla Dargis
L.A. Weekly

It's a drawling, slobbering, lovable run-on sentence of a film, a Southern Gothic with the emotional arc of its raw blues soundtrack.

Full Review Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | comment Comment
08/08/02
Duane Dudek
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Its pleasures are ... sharp and not to everyone’s taste

Full Review Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette | comment 1 Comment
07/26/02
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | comment Comment
07/26/02
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
07/21/02
Greg Muskewitz
eFilmCritic.com

Though you couldn't call Love a complete success, it's packed with talent and intelligence, wayward poetry and bluesy longing.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
07/20/02
Michael Wilmington
Chicago Tribune
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
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