Where to watch Home Fries
1 Star
Hamburger joint waitress Sally Jackson is pregnant. When Beatrice, the wife of the father, finds out about his infidelity, she sends her sons from a previous marriage, military pilots Angus and Dorian Montier, to scare the living daylights out of him. Their gunship does such a good job, without hitting him, that he dies from a heart attack. Worrying about radio interference that night, they investigate who might have heard too much within the fairly empty reception perimeter, and soon discover only Sally could, still ignorant about her affair with his step-dad Henry. Dorian takes a job there to be sure, but soon falls for her himself, while mother-obsessed moron Angus would do anything to anyone for her honor…
Celebrated television writer and showrunner Vince Gillian’s early film project is Home Fries. It’s an off-beat script he wrote back in film school, and the narrative resembles a ménage of Gillian’s strengths and (now corrected) weaknesses. Home Fries is a wholly original creation and never bores, but there isn’t anything worth recommending about the picture. Luke Wilson is pleasant and easy to watch, yet it was unbelievable that his character would fall in love with the Barrymore character.
1998 was a busy year for lead actress Drew Barrymore, who had three films on release that year, and Home Fries is easily the worst of the lot. The post-Pulp Fiction era is overflowing with Tarantino wannabes; some are admirable impersonations, and others are overwritten. Home Fries suffers from being an undercooked idea populated with insufferable characters. In hindsight, it’s clear that Warner Bros. was hoping for a ‘Fiction ‘-sized hit or at least a cult classic title to add to their library; instead, Home Fries is a feathered fish seen by few and liked by even fewer.
Directed by: Dean Parisot
Written by: Vince Gilligan
Starring: Drew Barrymore, Luke Wilson, Catherine O’Hara