Friday Night Flicks: American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince
Martin Scorsese’s short film catalogue is inevitably doomed to exist in the shadows of his feature-length work. But - seeing as each of these shorts are just as worthy of praise as Raging Bull or After Hours ever were - tonight we’re going to revisit a sleeper classic:
American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince.
The semi-short weaves snippets from an evening with Steven Prince, a larger-than-life personality whose biggest claims to fame include working as a road manager for Neil Diamond and playing a small role in Taxi Driver.
The conversation - moderated in person by a young and jittery Scorcese - is at times mundane (stories from Prince’s working class ubringing in New Jersey, advice from Ma and Pa) and at others exotic (getting stoned with silverback gorillas, draft dodging, and other misc. escapadry), but Prince is a first-class raconteur either way; At moments you’re certain he’s setting up for the punchline, he’ll just as quickly descend into darker territory, recanting tales from the often tragic side of life as an addict (including one particularly dramatic anecdote that inspired the overdose scene from Pulp Fiction).
At 55 minutes, American Boy is technically closer to a full length than a short (it could’ve just as easily been 5 hours long, Prince can talk a mile a minute) but the film’s unpredictable shifts in mood keep things engaging, and Scorsese remains cool and conversational throughout. He never was one for gimmicks, anyways. —Jackson Todd
