| This World, Then the Fireworks | |
| Director: | Michael Oblowitz |
| Screenplay: | Larry Gross |
| Cinematography: | Tom Priestley Jr. |
| Editing: | Emma E. Hickox |
| Music: | Pete Rugolo |
| Runtime: | 100 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Gross: | $51,618[1] |
This World, Then the Fireworks is a 1997 American crime drama film directed by Michael Oblowitz and starring Billy Zane, Gina Gershon, and Sheryl Lee. The screenplay is based on a short story of the same name by Jim Thompson.
As children, Marty and Carol Lakewood, fraternal twins, witness a brutal murder involving their father. They grow up to become depraved and incestuous adults, living in coastal California in the mid-1950s.
Marty is a skillful journalist, but grows bored with every new job and is easily distracted. When he seduces a young police officer, Lois Archer, and discovers she owns a beach house, Marty sets out to double-cross her and make the property his own.
Carol is a heartless prostitute, willing to go to any lengths to con men out of their money, or make them pay in other ways. Powerless to stop them is Mrs. Lakewood, a weak-willed woman who suspects the terrible truth in her children's relationship, but knows no way to stop it.
This World, Then the Fireworks was released on July 11, 1997 in only five U.S. theaters, grossing US$51,618 in total.[1] It was released on videocassette on June 30, 1998,[2] and on Blu-ray (through Kino Lorber) on November 14, 2017.[3]
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 38% approval rating based on 8 reviews, with an average ranking of 3.9/10.[4]
Emanuel Levy of Variety wrote "In the hands of filmmaker Michael Oblowitz, novelist Jim Thompson's story 'This World, Then the Fireworks' gets an elegantly stylish, highly erotic, intentionally over-the-top rendition".[5] Total Film called the film "sexy, stylized, deliberately overheated slice of noir".[6]