What’s this all about?
Set in New Orleans in 1981, Sonny tells the story of the world’s greatest male prostitute. He’s super good at being a prostitute because his mom taught him how. No, I don’t know how that works, either.
In Nicolas Cage’s directorial debut, we see the tale of titular Sonny, who returns home after a 4-year stint in the Army. His mother wants him to resume his career as a prostitute, but Sonny wants to live a normal life. Along the way, Sonny breaks up a lot of furniture, engages in a lot of for-profit sexual activity, “works doubles” with another prostitute, and generally looks confused.
Who is Nick in this one?
Nick has a minor role as “Acid Yellow,” a flamboyant gay pimp. This character has the three things Nick looks for in a great character; an absurd accent, a reason to scream and yell, and a prosthetic nose.
More importantly, though, Nick directed this film. If you had a nickel for every movie that Nicolas Cage directed in his long career, you would have precisely five cents. It is clear that Nick valued weird, atmospheric scenes and oddball characters over storytelling, and that his direction to the cast must have been something like, “look distracted and uninterested, or smash shit up. Either one works fine.”
Who else is in this one?
James Franco (The Interview) gets the title role of “Sonny.” He’s squinty and confused throughout. He plays the character like he might have some sort of learning disability. You’ve seen James Franco in things before. You know what I mean.
Harry Dean Stanton (Repo Man) plays “Henry,” Sonny’s Mom’s boyfriend, and downtrodden petty criminal. You’ve seen Stanton play this role in every movie that he’s ever been in, and honestly, he’s great at it. It’s too bad he gets exploded.
Mena Suvari (American Beauty) plays “Carol,” a prostitute being trained by Sonny’s mom. We’re supposed to think that she’s an exceptionally good prostitute, too. She has sex with Sonny, and immediately falls in love with him, probably because he’s such an exceptional prostitute. Suvari plays the role like she’s just a little bit too high to come to work at Wendy’s, but maybe that’s what Nick was going for.
Brenda Vaccaro (Caprocorn One, every detective show ever) plays “Meg,” one of Sonny’s regular customers. I always think Brenda Vaccaro is great, as I do here. Maybe they should have just let Harry Dean Stanton and Brenda Vaccaro character act for 90 minutes.
Josie Davis (Charles In Charge) plays “Gretchen.” I’m honestly not sure which character that even is, but I found it interesting that one of the Powell sisters from Charles In Charge was in this. One of her fan sites (yes, those exist) describes her role in this as “opposite James Franco.” I’m not sure that’s accurate.
Did you see that?
Early in the film, we see Carol performing oral sex in exchange for a Pontiac Firebird. From the dialog, we learn that it is a $5,000 car. The car is a second generation Firebird, not older than 1977 or newer than 1981, and appears to be in showroom condition. Given that the film is set in 1981, this makes me ponder two things.
Are we to think that the car is new, as it’s entirely believable that it’s a 1981? That seems unlikely, as MSRP on a new Firebird was around $7,600. Isn’t that nuts? Imagine buying a brand new sports car for $7,600.
Anyway, surely we’re to think the car is gently used, and only a couple of years old. Again, imagine buying a 2-year-old mint condition car for $5,000. Either way, car prices were from another planet in 1981.
Second, I find it hard to believe that Carol is so good at oral sex that a car dealer is willing to give her $5,000 in trade. That’s enough money to buy a car! Here in 2025, a two-year-old Camaro (they aren’t making Firebirds, anymore) costs about $40,000. Would you believe that there’s a prostitute giving $40,000 BJs at New Orleans car lots?
I wouldn’t. -Michael
There was a scene in which James Franco has sex with Brenda Vaccaro and let’s just say that she really likes to get pounded hard. More than a little bit of effort went into making sure you knew exactly that. Once the pounding was over, she rolls over and you can very clearly see that she is wearing underwear. I’m not sure if we are to think he was just pounding through it or it’s just shoddy camera work, but I found it hilarious. -Sarah
What were Nick’s best parts?
Nick is only in three scenes, and they’re pretty wild. My personal favorite is the one in which James Franco, who has offered himself as a worker at Nick’s gay brothel, and has subsequently beaten up a client and broken up the joint, runs out of the brothel and down the street. Nick runs after him, screaming obscenities, including calling Franco a “cunt.”
Nick seems really well-suited for the scene, and he’s clearly into it. I’m honestly not sure how the audience is supposed to feel about the characters at that moment. We’re ostensibly supposed to be rooting for Sonny, but he’s just assaulted a stranger at another man’s business because he’s mad at his father, or something. Maybe Nick just felt like screaming obscenities. I know I did. -Michael
I can’t disagree with Michael’s choices or comments on Nick’s best and worst scenes. In fact, I couldn’t agree more. – Sarah
What were Nick’s worst parts?
Nick’s worst scene is the one in which his character is introduced. He’s wearing a bright yellow suit and a rubber nose that he’s using to snort cocaine. There’s an all-purple miniature poodle and an all red female prostitute (or maybe drag queen?) with him, and the whole thing looks like it was shot through a kaleidoscope.
He mutters and murmurs his lines, as though he’s so drunk that he can barely stand.
It just feels like the director (Cage) said, “let’s do a bunch of weird crap in this scene. Weird crap is always good.” None of it adds anything to the story. -Michael
Yep. 100% -Sarah
How was the movie?
As previously mentioned, this film was Nick Cage’s directorial debut. It was also his only directorial effort. The whole thing felt like an attempt to be edgy and weird, and to wallow in the underbelly of society. The problem is that the underbelly that Nick creates is just nonsensical. If Sonny wanted to leave the prostitute life, why did he return to his mother’s brothel after four years in the Army? He tries to get one “legitimate” job, and just gives up.
What are women so infatuated by Sonny? His sexual performances seem disinterested at times, and borderline violent at others. He’s not at all charming. He’s just kind of a bored punk.
At one point, Sonny has sex with a woman that he’s met when trying to get a job. She doesn’t know he’s a prostitute. After they have sex, he tells her, and she seems fine with it. Then she excuses herself to go drink some codeine-laced cough syrup. For some reason, this sends Sonny into a fit, and he smashes up her house, and screams, “I’m better than all of you” at the people (ostensibly his friends) in the house. Even Sonny’s army buddy appears perplexed by this behavior. Sonny immediately returns to life as a prostitute after this incident.
In another scene, Harry Dean Stanton wins a game of Gin Rummy against one of his buddies, and pockets $60. Stanton comments on how he can feel that this is the start of a winning streak for him. He then gets in his car, pulls out of the parking lot and is immediately T-boned by a speeding truck which causes his car to literally explode. The entire car scene takes maybe three seconds, and feels like it should have starred Wile E. Coyote. It was like something out of Plan 9 From Outer Space or Star Wars 9: Rise of Skywalker.
The movie is full of scenes like this that feel like they’re supposed to be developing character, or, god-forbid, moving the plot, but they just end up seeming like nonsense.
None of it is at all believable or relatable, and none of the characters are the least bit engaging. They just perform in a series of weird scenes for no real reason, then the movie ends.
This movie cost $4 million dollars to make. It made $130,000 at the box office. -Michael
It wasn’t a good movie, but it is not the worst one I’ve seen in this venture either. -Sarah
Yeah, but did you like it?
It was a bad movie. There’s a reason that you’ve never heard of it. -Michael
Not really, but I didn’t hate it either. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to see it again, and I don’t recommend it, but it wasn’t torture. -Sarah
Where can I watch it?
It’s free on Tubi.
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