No Way Home

Fans of hard-hitting genre cinema were eager to see what Buddy Giovinazzo could do with a budget after his blistering backyard debut Combat Shock emerged from the underground in the late ’80s. No Way Home was still an indie, but it was a major step up the production ladder and boasted a trio of prime emerging acting talents of the era: Tim Roth, James Russo and Deborah Kara Unger, fresh off Reservoir Dogs, My Own Private Idaho and Crash (yes, that one) respectively. Set again in the grimmest side streets of Staten Island, Roth plays Joey, who upon his release from a brutal stretch in prison, looks to his dodgy brother Tommy for a place to crash for a few days, despite the protestations of the latter's wife Lorraine. Joey's efforts to stick to the straight and narrow soon clash with Tommy's plans and, as anyone familiar with Buddy G's work knows, things are only going to get darker and more vicious with each bad decision made. (Fantasia International Film Festival)