Cinema: Is This the Family Gun, Dad? At Close Range

Directed by James Foley; Screenplay by Nicholas Kazan

Andrew Wyeth painted landscapes of this bucolic stretch of Pennsylvania, but could he ever have imagined these small, warped figures inhabiting them? Brad Whitewood Sr. (Christopher Walken) runs a scuzzy gang that makes millions breaking into company safes and hijacking tractors. His estranged wife and her mother slouch around their dreary house staring at TV. Brad Jr. (Sean Penn) is searching for something worth spending his teenage energy on: maybe his lay-about friends, maybe that cute 16-year-old he's just met (Mary Stuart Masterson), maybe the toxic dream of emulating his old man. You've got to act, Brad. So be a thief...

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