This fascinating chronicle of the life and times of a twenty dollar bill was originally written by Endre Boehm in 1935 and languished forgotten on the shelf until his son Leslie resurrected it after his father's death, and updated the script. (Both received screenwriter credit for the released version). The scrap of currency's journey begins after it is spit out of a downtown Minneapolis ATM machine into the hands of a busy young mother. It's a windy day, and the crisp bill is blown out of her hands into those of a bag lady who uses it on the lottery because she believes the serial numbers are lucky. Unfortunately, the bill is plucked from her hands by a light-fingered skate boarder who uses the money at a local bakery. From there the bill's odyssey takes it to a wide variety of places including a wedding, a stripper's g-string, a con artist's scam, and a robbery. It ends up used as a note pad, a birthday present, a coaster, and a fishing contest trophy. Interestingly, every one who encounters the bill changes in some way. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Review by All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
is neutral about it.
Without seeing it, it would be easy to make the assumption that Twenty Bucks is a clever concept that goes nowhere. After all, its theatrical run was virtually nonexistent, director Keva Rosenfeld seemed to disappear into thin air, and after several years, even with its quirky cast, it hasn't even landed itself a cult-following. And that's all a shame, because Twenty Bucks is a wonderfully inventive and smart film. With a script that's both engaging and funny and the aforementioned cast of talented character players, including
Steve Buscemi, William H. Macy,
Spalding Gray,
Christopher Lloyd,
Melora Walters, and
Matt Frewer, the film should've been a jumping-off point for its director, who showed as much potential as
Paul Thomas Anderson did with
Hard Eight. At the very least, the film should've garnered itself a loyal following of fans who hold it to be what it is, an anthology of compelling and bright stories, executed by a capable young director and an outstanding cast. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide