Johns (1996)

Director:

Scott Silver

Writer:

Scott Silver (writer)

Release Date:

31 January 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

It's the day before Christmas, the day before John's 21st birthday. He's a prostitute on Santa Monica Blvd in L.A....

Plot Keywords:

Hotel | Money | Friend | Friendship | Christmas

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Lukas Haas	...	Donner
David Arquette	...	John
Wilson Cruz	...	Mikey
Keith David	...	Homeless John
Christopher Gartin	...	Eli
Elliott Gould	...	Manny Gould
Terrence Howard	...	Jimmy the Warlock (as Terrence Dashon Howard)
Joshua Schaefer	...	David (as Josh Schaefer)
Nicky Katt	...	Mix
Richard Kind	...	Paul Truman
Kurtis Kunzler	...	Hustler at Payphone
John C. McGinley	...	Danny Cohen
Richard T. Jones	...	Mr. Popper (as Richard Timothy Jones)
Louis Mustillo	...	John Wayne
Harper Roisman	...	Old Man

Also Known As:

Johns (France) [fr]
Johns (Brazil) [pt]
Johns (Spain) [es]
Johns - katu antaa (Finland) [fi]

MPAA:

Rated R for strong sexual content and language, and for some violence and drug use.

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Netherlands:12 | Australia:MA | France:-12 | Singapore:R(A) | Spain:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Bandeira Entertainment

Trivia:

Filmed in 20 days in and around Hollywood.

Quotes:

Donner: I am not a prostitute. I am an entertainer. I do not go in for violence.

Well-intentioned but very unsatisfying.

The good acting by David Arquette surprised me, I'll admit. Too bad he and Lukas Haas' efforts in this film go unrewarded by a meandering script and barely developed secondary characters. The portrayal of life on the street was intriguing, but the turns of events didn't go anywhere, yet at the same same time the film's conclusion is inevitable. It's as if the director had Point A and Point B and called in some favors to get some name actors to improv scenes. It's sad that even in a modestly budgeted independent film like this, they filled the bill with heterosexual actors who got to be gay as a dramatic exercise, then went back to their heterosexual lives, while we can still count on one hand the number of openly gay actors working in movies and TV combined. You'd think a small film like this might have been an opportunity a gay actor or two. But noooooo, we already have our quota of openly gay actors on the lower rungs of the Hollywood ladder.

But even not taking that into account, the film is just okay at best. Not enough of a story, and even barring that, the dialogue in unmemorable. The only reason to watch is to see David Arquette in a new light, otherwise skip it.