Nicholas Cage's directorial debut SONNY is the story of a young man (James Franco) who returns to the life he left behind in New Orleans after a brief stint in the Army. That life, provided by his mother Jewel (Brenda Blethyn), is one of small-time prostitution: mom is a madam, and Sonny has been in the brothel all his life. His brief excursion into the broader world makes Sonny want a different life, but he finds that his old habits--as well as the pull of young call girl Carol (Mena Suvari), and the bond with his mother's companion Henry (Harry Dean Stanton)--make leaving nearly impossible.

For his first shot at directing, Cage chose a particularly gritty, knotted story in SONNY. Barry Markowitz's rich cinematography is nearly tactile, and Cage makes the interesting choice of having the colorful (in more ways than one) city of New Orleans mostly push through the edges of the movie, which is primarily shot in close-up. Those tight shots reveal the simmering rage in Franco's character, as well as the strange Oedipal twist of the hustling son who tries to please his mother by having sex with other women.