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In my years away I’ve missed everything Edward Burns has
written and directed in the last decade. I’ve followed his career with some
interest because he’s a Long Island film maker and I like supporting my
community, but he hasn’t quite lived up to the promise of his first feature The Brothers McMullen. He received a
great deal of recognition for that film made on a shoestring budget at a time
when I was just getting interested in cinema. His follow up She’s the One showed what he could do
with a bigger budget and A-list stars, but he fell backward after that. Sidewalks of New York, released in 2001
was his last film I saw. After that nothing really made a big enough splash
that I was enthused enough to seek it out. Recently he’s begun releasing his
films on DVD and the Internet to avoid the hassle of distribution and striking
film prints. Eschewing the offers the direct studio pictures, he’s come back to
the kind of small personal films that he’s passionate about.
His newest film Newlyweds
was released in late December simultaneously on DVD and various Internet
outlets such as VOD and iTunes. I was lucky enough to attend an event at my
local Arts Cinema where Burns was an invited guest for a Q&A and reception
following the screening. As an added surprise, he brought along two of his
co-stars in the film.
