Casualties of Love: The Long Island Lolita Story (1993): Cast & Plot

Set on Long Island, this biographical crime drama traces a high-profile sequence of events surrounding a lavishly publicized crime and the people it pulls into its orbit. The story opens with Joey Buttafuoco [Jack Scalia], a married auto-shop proprietor, drumming at home as he wrestles with a heavy cocaine relapse, fleeing from the police, and visiting his mother’s grave. At the house, his wife, Mary Jo Buttafuoco [Phyllis Lyons], waits with a mix of concern and frustration—she makes it clear that she won’t tolerate another relapse. After a tense confrontation, Joey chooses to enter rehab, and six weeks later returns clean, telling Mary Jo he has become the man she fell in love with.