THE BOSTON TRILOGY
BILLY IN THE LOWLANDS
WATCH THE FILM HEREThe odyssey of a young man in trouble with the law, Billy in the Lowlands stars Henry Tomaszewski as Billy Shaughnessy, a working-class project kid trying to make a place for himself in the world. After being sent away to a Massachusetts reformatory, Billy breaks out in hopes of reestablishing a relationship with his distant father. A fiction film drawn from real-life events and experiences, the cast includes both professional and nonprofessional actors. The late Vincent Canby found in this work "unexpected resources of compassion and humor and, more important, of unsentimental honesty."
THE DARK END OF THE STREET
WATCH THE FILM HEREA compelling depiction of race relations, The Dark End of the Street is a coming-of-age story set in a North Cambridge housing project. When a black youth falls off a building roof, the only witnesses are a white teenage couple. The girl's impulse is to go to the authorities, but her boyfriend-who has already done time-advises her to keep quiet. As a result, another black youth is suspected of the "crime," and a number of suppressed tensions explode into the open. With a cast culled largely from the projects, and a bare-bones budget, The Dark End of the Street represents regional independent filmmaking at its purest and an embodiment of the working-class concerns it addresses.
THE LITTLE SISTER
WATCH THE FILM HEREThe final film of Jan Egleson's trilogy, The Little Sister continues to explore the lives of Boston street kids. The story focuses on Nicki (Pollan), a well-to-do eighteen-year-old girl from the suburbs whose self-destructive behavior leads her into Boston's once-infamous Combat Zone. On her downward spiral she is aided by a probation officer (Savage), whose interest in Nicki's case borders on obsession. A complexly drawn portrait of sexual abuse, The Tender Age boasts an original score by Pat Metheny and striking cinematography by Edward Lachman. Music composed and performed by Pat Metheny.
“I HAD SEEN A LOT OF KITCHEN-SINK DRAMA. IT WAS A MOVEMENT IN BRITAIN. THEY WERE MAKING A LOT OF FILMS ABOUT WORKING-CLASS PEOPLE, AND I REMEMBER CONSTANTLY THINKING ‘GEE, NOBODY DOES THAT IN AMERICA. I WONDER IF WE CAN DO THAT.”
The Early Days Of Boston/Cambridge Cinema: An Interview With Director Jan Egleson, by Vincent Weisberg
(Hidden Films)
“Put bluntly, the chances that Hollywood ever would have made Boston ‘neighborhood movies’
like Mystic River or The Departed were it not for Billy in the Lowlands—a movie few people are even aware of today—are doubtful”
From Mystery Street to The Departed and Beyond, by Paul Shermon
(Big Screen Boston)
“Mr. Egleson's style is straightforward, direct, without fancy affectations and frequently informed by the kind of humor that usually eludes film makers in this genre. Like Donna, ''The Dark End of the Street'' is neither falsely bleak nor foolishly optimistic. It is resolute and it keeps its eyes open”
The Dark End Of The Street, by Vincent Canby
(The New York Times)
“Jan EGLESON knows too much to argue or to judge. nor does he editorialize with flashy montages and camera angles. this is the art that does not conceal art so much as ignore it”
Cinema: Three Orphans, by Richard Corliss
(TIME)
“Billy in the Lowlands knows how life in the land of the blue blue collar looks. It catches the tempo of the speech, as well as the background sounds of traffic, whistles, transistor radios. Best of all, the movie appreciates the people without bending them into melodramatic poses"
Film: Billy In the Lowlands, by Vincent Canby
(The New York Times)
“What distinguishes the little sister, however, is an attention to detail and a commitment to quality at every level. in acting, directing, writing, lighting and even music”
The Best Show of the Week, by Jack Thomas