The Amy Fisher Story (1993)

Made for television in 1993, and starring Drew Barrymore during her "bad girl" period, The Amy Fisher Story is arguably the best of the film adaptations made about the Long Island Lolita. Any film would have its hands full trying to depict the chaotic chain of events and tangled plot of the infamous shooting, so rather than refine any single viewpoint, the story unfolds with a Rashomon-like quality, depicting the tale of the assault in a series of flashbacks. Sometimes this leads to flashbacks within flashbacks, and even flashbacks within flashbacks within flashbacks, but don't worry, we've got ominous musical cues and grainy 16mm black-and-white stock to help us keep the story straight, which is more than we had at the time.

The movie does take a critical look at the television and print tabloids and their roles in the inflation of this event. It awkwardly, perhaps a little self-consciously, depicts the escalating and infringing influence of the media until it is impossible to extricate the reporters from the reported. Ultimately the "detached" press finds itself posting portions of Amy's bail, recording Joey's defense on live shock radio, encouraging those closest to the players to record supposedly intimate conversations, and then cheerfully reporting the ensuing pandemonium with a tsk-tsk aside and a sly wink. Couple all this with the wonderfully studied performance of Drew Barrymore, whose dialect and mannerisms are spot-on Amy, and the smarmy performance of Anthony John Denison as Joey Buttafuoco (you can actually smell the WD40) and you get a fun 90-minute movie. --Steffan Ziegler Amazon.com

Best Amy

The girl who played Amy was phenominal,I saw this on lifetime a while ago.And I don't watch Lifetime,chic channel.But I was definately captivated,and thought
she had the accent down,I went to school with and hung out with these chicks.She was academy worthy. August 5, 2007

Interesting story....

IOkay, first off, I am not 13, I just don'thave time to go through everything in registering and all that jazz. I am too young to remember the actual case and facts,etc,etc. But, i just saw the Alyssa Milano vertion on Encore this morning (and cannot find the DVD)
I am a big Drew fan too. This is an interesting story, you couldn't make this stuff up. Does anybody know where I can find the DVD w/ Ms. Milano in it? August 21, 2006

Too Realistic?

How much you enjoy this movie will depend upon how much interest you have in Amy Fisher's story. Absent the fact that it is based upon real events, it is not all that exciting. It is well acted and filmed and makes some interesting comments upon the media, but that's all. From the perspective of realism and professionality, it is the best film made about Amy Fisher, but as a result is far less amusing than the other two films made from the perspective of Amy and Joey. It is more difficult to find humour in the characters when they are more real. This film, vs. the other two, shows equal sympathy (and condemnation) towards all those involved. Thus, as an exploitation film, it is not that great. The liner notes in the booklet about what Fisher and co. are doing now is far more entertaining and bizarre than anything in the film. Regarding the few new minutes added, I can see why they would be edited out of TV broadcasts, but they barely rate anything more than a PG-13.

Watching this film did not leave me wanting to regain lost time, but it's not particularly memorable and I can't picture myself watching it a second time. November 28, 2002

Not Bad. Not Great.

I watched this for Drew and she did not disappoint.

This was a very interesting role for her to agree to do...she was quite impressive. Her accent and the way she carried herself was fantastic. I wish it could have gone into more detail...I thought the story was too vague. If I had any questions about what happened they wouldn't really have been answered here...there are too many conflicting stories...it doesn't make sense to me that Amy Fisher was the only person convicted of anything...maybe that's the point?

Drew can do no wrong in my book...I'd watch her paint a fence! If you're an admirer I'd like to suggest you buy this film...if you're not, I'd like to suggest you'd at least rent it. It's worth a peek. April 6, 2002

A movie as innacurate as the papers were.

I forced myself to sit through this movie when it aired on television the first time. Although the acting was decent, perhaps even good, it was based, unfortunately, primarily on the tabloids and inaccurate accounts in the newspapers/television reports. How do I know this? Simple. I grew up in Bellmore, Long Island and went to school, and was friends with Amy (which, btw, is not the correct spelling of her name, just another instance of the press not bothering to check their facts).
I personally feel watching this video, or any movie based upon the unfortunate real life (no matter how inaccurate) events of unfortunate people is tacky at best, but if you're going to watch it, please don't take it as the gospel of what really happened. December 19, 2001

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