Lifetime
Lifetime returns to their biographical drama format as they did recently with their Octomom, Honey Boo Boo and Courtney Stodden movies, this one going way back to early 1990s Long Island and the notorious ‘Long Island Lolita’ story which left the subject of the movie severely injured and left for dead.
In May 1992, outside her Long Island home, Mary Jo Buttafuoco (Chloe Lanier) was shot in the head by 17-year-old Amy Fisher (Maddy Hillis) — the mistress of her husband, Joey Buttafuoco (Dillon Casey). As tabloids sensationalized the scandal and dubbed Fisher the ‘Long Island Lolita’, Mary Jo lay in the hospital fighting for her life. This powerful installment of Lifetime’s ‘I Am’ franchise reveals why Mary Jo and Joey remained married for seven years after the shooting, the lasting physical and emotional impact of the bullet that remains lodged in her head, and how she has found resilience and peace amid unimaginable trauma.
Lifetime
As with the previous ‘I Am’ movies, the real Mary Jo appears on camera to tell her story for the first time, as she says (because you can find a volume of video on YouTube of Mary Jo telling her story over the years), in her own words (she was also an executive producer on the movie, so she certainly had some control over the storytelling … which is heavily disclaimered at the beginning to ensure there are no lawsuits). Mary Jo actually makes for a compelling storyteller, really laying out the facts of her shooting from her viewpoint, relaying the facts that became known to her later, defending her decision to stay with Joey for so long (blame that on religious guilt), and going through the trials and tribulations of her many operations, addiction to painkillers, and recovery, while still trying to keep her family together. The movie details Mary Jo’s dream life with Joey, a successful auto body shop owner who seems to want to give her the world. Joey is a bit disappointed when he first learns his new bride is already pregnant, but he turns that attitude around to one of pure joy. Everything is fine until 16-year-old Amy Fisher shows up in his body shop, but it’s unclear if she really needed work done to her car or if she just somehow set her sights on Joey (though in reality her father had some repair work done to her car, and Amy claimed to keep damaging it to see Joey).
Now here is where we have to decide whose story to believe. In the aftermath of the shooting, most of the spotlight was put on Amy and Joey, with three TV movies produced for the three major networks, all told mainly from Amy’s side of things (one starred Alyssa Milano and another starred Drew Barrymore, both as Amy). From Mary Jo’s side here, the whole affair seems to be placed squarely on Amy’s shoulders — she pursued Joey, Joey attempted to resist, but he was weak and Amy had him wrapped around her little finger. So while Joey was an active participant, Mary Jo is putting the weight of everything on Amy. I have not seen any of the previous movies, so I don’t know if her two ‘accomplices’ are mentioned, but here we see her try to entice a young man named Steven Sleeman to kill Mary Jo in exchange for Amy sleeping with him (she’d apparently become a prostitute by the time she was 17) — which he tried, but failed to do — and another slightly older man named Peter Guagenti, who sold her the gun and acted as her getaway driver. Steven was granted immunity for his testimony and Peter served six months for supplying the firearm. In Amy’s stories over the years, which have shifted a bit with each telling, after arriving at Mary Jo’s front door pretending to be Amy’s older sister there to tell Mary Jo that Joey was having an affair with said sister, Mary Jo got fed up with the conversation and turned to go back in the house. Amy claims she hit Mary Jo on the head with the gun and it went off accidentally. In Mary Jo’s account, Amy just pulled the gun out and shot her at point blank range. Who are we most likely to believe? The rest of the story takes us through Mary Jo’s recovery, the trauma of trying to recover while also holding her family together, never knowing where Joey is (at one point he’s in California for some reason, calling his wife from a police station after being picked up for soliciting … which he denies), dealing with the press, the movies, the trials, never wanting to be famous but also distraught that she was the one who was shot and Amy is the one getting all the attention. If nothing else, through the dramatic scenes and Mary Jo’s on-camera narration, we finally begin to see this woman really remained a mystery for so many years, only known as the woman who was shot while Amy and Joey sought out the spotlight (despite her many TV interviews over the years). She does make a compelling case for why she stuck with Joey for so many years as well, coming from an Irish Catholic family who adored Joey like a son, Mary Jo feeling like she would be blamed if the marriage broke up because divorce was verboten for Catholics. The movie also delves — not too deeply — into Mary Jo’s painkillers addiction and recovery in rehab, although it doesn’t say how long she was at the facility but it was long enough for her kids to age rapidly (in movie time). In the end, Mary Jo has finally gotten to say her piece, put her side of the story out to the world, and took the whole event and turned it into something good. The movie does not really mention her work with The Facial Paralysis Institute and the Institute’s Facial Paralysis & Bell’s Palsy Foundation, using her own experience to advocate for others and raise awareness about facial paralysis. Out of tragedy, some good can come, and by the end Mary Jo seems to be in a good place, still close to her kids, having ‘forgiven’ Amy as part of her recovery process from rehab, having remarried (though her second husband died from cancer in 2018, but the movie makes it sound like they divorced), and having zero contact with Joey.
Lifetime
The cast for the movie also do some good work, although the ‘Longk Island’ accents may be a tad over-the-top (because Mary Jo does not sound like the character in the movie). That being said, Chloe Lanier is outstanding as Mary Jo. She is incredibly likable, she shows how Mary Jo dotes on her family and puts up with Joey, always the dutiful wife and mother, perfectly content to be Mrs. Joey Buttafuoco. She shows Mary Jo’s journey post-shooting, really conveying the emotional and physical pain she went through, but always remaining strong even when she was at her lowest with the addiction. Lanier really helps shed a light on this woman we never really knew much about over these past 33 years, making us root for her to finally wake up and smell the coffee and dump Joey.
Dillon Casey is also very good as Joey, even if he is almost a caricature (it’s almost a surprise that he never says ‘fuggedaboutit’). But Casey has the tricky role of trying to make Joey not seem as complicit in the affair as he was, and even in the midst of everything he still gives the impression that he is completely devoted to Mary Jo and the kids (apparently only his son has remained in touch with him). He just does a great job at not making Joey a villain, and perhaps that was because Mary Jo refused to see him that way, so we don’t feel hatred toward him for the entire movie. (And, for the record, Casey is much more handsome than the real Joey.) Maddy Hillis portrays Amy exactly how Mary Jo wants her to be portrayed, a teenage Jezabel, someone worthy of the nickname ‘Long Island Lolita’. She comes hard a Joey right from the start, she uses her sexuality to get what she wants, she is a total predator and Hillis plays the part perfectly. She absolutely brings no sympathy to Amy, at least not until the very end at her sentencing when she finally apologizes to Mary Jo, but even then we have to question if her remorse is real or just a ploy to get the judge to go easy on her.
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Indy Lesage does a good job as Steven, a very awkward young man willing to do anything to get into Amy’s pants, even commit murder, but at least his morals get the best of him. Jonas Janz turns up in a very small role as Peter, and he plays the guy as bad news from the start. How he got roped into being Amy’s driver, though, is never explained. The rest of the cast, from the various actors playing children Jessie and Paul through various ages, to the lawyers and medical professionals, all do good work at making their characters feel authentic. It’s odd that we never saw anyone else from Joey’s, Mary Jo’s or Amy’s families, especially Mary Jo’s since this is her story, but some of their perspective would have been a bonus. Overall, I Am Mary Jo Buttafuoco retells a story many of us have heard over the last three decades, putting a slightly new spin on it from the victim’s viewpoint, but even with Mary Jo telling her story and the very good cast, there really doesn’t seem to be a whole lot here that we don’t already know. It’s not compelling, must see TV, but it’s good enough to make it an engaging watch.
I Am Mary Jo Buttafuoco has a run time of 1 hour 27 minutes, and is rated TV-PG.
I Am Mary Jo Buttafuoco | Trailer
Lifetime