Steve Buscemi’s third feature got a US release in 2005, where it was overshadowed by the similar Garden State; holding back in the UK now allows this smaller film the chance to be appreciated in its own right.
Each film may be about young men returning to estranged families, but Jim is a more difficult pill to swallow than Zach Braff’s Andrew Largeman; he measures his own misery against his uniformly suicidal heroes, treats his well-meaning mother appallingly, and doesn’t recognise a great thing when it lays him (Liv Tyler).
Buscemi draws dark humour from each dour situation, but by the last act even hardened indie fans will want to shake some sense into Jim’s impossible head.