Movies

The Avocado Movie Club #26: Bound (1996)

Welcome to the Movie Club! Today’s movie is the Wachowski’s debut film, the 90s neo-noir Bound!

Japanese release poster

Bound follows Corky (Gina Gershon), an ex-con who takes up a job working as a handywoman for an apartment owned by the mob. She quickly meets Violet (Jennifer Tilly), the girlfriend of a made man, Caesar (Joey Pantoliano), who lives in the building, and the two of them start having an affair. After one of Caesar’s associates is caught embezzling money and he ends up with 2 million in cash, Violet and Corky devise a plan to steal it before it can be picked up. 

Bound was made as an “audition piece” for the Wachowski’s to prove they could direct a film. They initially had trouble securing funding, but eventually Dino de Laurentiis stepped in and agreed to finance it for a budget of $6 million.1 Bound first premiered at the Venice Film Festival on August 31, 1996, before being released in the US on October 4, 1996. While not a big hit, it made $7 million in the box office and received critical acclaim, with a current score of 87% on Rotten Tomatoes.2 Time has been kind to it as well, as it has earned a large cult following since its release, a 4K restoration from Criterion, and is widely considered an essential example of the 90s neo-noir revival. 

Trivia:34

  • Feminist author Susie Bright was hired as the film’s intimacy coordinator and also helped choreograph the sex scenes. She also has a cameo appearance in the film, as the woman Corky approaches in the bar early in the movie.
  • Linda Hamilton was initially set to play Violent, while Tilly was going to play Corky, but after Hamilton dropped out, Tilly swapped roles and Gina Gershon was cast. 
  • Executives wanted Corky to be played by a man, but the Wachowski’s refused on the basis of it making the story too generic. 

What did you think? Share your thoughts below! 

Up Next: Our next movie will be Olivier Assaya’s neo-noir thriller, Demonlover (another neo-noir with Gina Gershon?)! We will meet to discuss it on July 11 at 12PM EST. Check out the trailer and where it’s playing below (options are unfortunately quite limited): 

USA

  • Stream: Criterion Channel, HBO Max
  • Rent or Buy: Nada!

Canada

  • Stream: Criterion Channel
  • Rent or Buy: Nada!

UK

  • Stream: Nada!
  • Rent or Buy: Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube
  1. https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Bound-(1996)#tab=summary ↩︎
  2. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bound ↩︎
  3. https://web.archive.org/web/20080506144714/http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1996/vp961107/11070036.htm ↩︎
  4. https://web.archive.org/web/20040301035225/http://www.gadflyonline.com/archive-wachowski.html ↩︎