This World, Then the Fireworks
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. Plot. 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. Reception and release. 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. Todd McCarthy 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". "Total Film" called the film "sexy, stylized, deliberately overheated slice of noir". On November 14, 2017, Kino Lorber released a Blu-ray of the film.