American Boy on AllMovie

Martin Scorsese's American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince is both a documentary and a tragicomedy, in which the personal experiences of one twentysomething Jewish gay man are rendered universal. Surrounded by friends in a cozy living room, the sensitive and humorous Prince (Taxi Driver's gun salesman, Handy Andy) recounts his personal history, from his run-in with a gorilla, to his relationship with his parents, his childhood bagel delivery business, his coming out, his addiction to drugs, his job as Neil Diamond's road manager, and his father's falling ill. One of Prince's most exciting tales, an account of his reviving a friend's overdosing girlfriend by injecting stimulant into her heart, was re-created almost to a tee by director Quentin Tarantino in Pulp Fiction. As wild and theatrical as the young man's accounts are, Scorsese intersperses them with childhood pictures of Prince that could be of any American, quickly reminding the entire audience of their common humanity.