One thing seemed unrealistic to me. Where does Tommy get the money to drink and smoke and everything else? If he has a lot of savings, why can't he fix his car? If he wants a job as a mechanic, why does he pull up to the shop in a broken down car? Of course you can question the economic situation of many movie characters, like Dude in "Big Lebowski." But that movie wasn't meant to be taken seriously. I know people who seem to live beyond their means. Some of them bum money or steal or gamble or deal drugs or have help from family or are on disability or have big savings or whatever. Maybe they have a pension or won a personal injury lawsuit.
This movie seems fairly realistic, but they never explain how Tommy maintains his lifestyle. Car mechanics aren't that well paid and drinking in bars is expensive; buying from big liquor stores is cheaper. I guessed he was living on savings, but he doesn't seem at all worried about how he will keep paying for bar tabs, rent, utilities, food, etc. Bukowski had a modest patron / benefactor late in life, but before that he worked at many odd jobs, some for a good many years, like the post office. Even working there he probably spent most of the money as fast as he made it on alcohol, gambling, and women.
Personally, I think the movie "Factotum" and the book is very realistic and a lot more realistic than "Trees Lounge" about the economics of being a drunk loser. It makes me FEEL drunk, even stone cold sober. Something about the music, pace, and dialogue. It's physically intoxicating. I watched it several times years apart; I always felt warm and numb, like I was floating. Like being drunk with tequila. It also shows him living in cheap rooming houses (flop houses), sleeping on benches, moving in with women he meets in bars, getting STDs, eating crappy food, mooching off rich guys with women, stealing cigarettes from unlocked cars, etc. Money does not magically appear in his pocket every day, like it seems to do in Tommy's.
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