DAY AT THE BEACH (director/writer: Nick Veronis; cinematography:Nils Kenaston; cast:Nick Veronis (Jimmy Hughes), Jane Adams (Marie), Patrick Fitzgerald (John), Paul Gleason (Detective Johnson ), Neal Jones (Chuck Hanson), Catherine Kellner (Amy), Joe Ragno (Antonio Gintolini), Ed Setrakian (Augie), Elizabeth Stearns (Real Estate Lady), Robert Maisonett (Herman), 1998)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
This is mainly a comedy/thriller about a young New Yorker's dream to make a gangster movie and of his love for a young girl and his relationship with his friends. The story has a certain charm to it and a genuineness that shows through in the telling of the story, as it moves seamlessly from comedy into suspense, at the drop of a briefcase.
Jimmy Hughes (Veronis) is a luckless New York ravioli factory worker who, with fellow workers, John (Patrick), Chuck (Neal), and Herman (Maisonett), accidentally cause the death of a passing fisherman when John mistakingly flings the only briefcase these amateur filmmakers have over the roof of a building when it was supposed to only be a rehearsal shot, while they were filming a movie on city property without a permit.
Nick Veronis makes his debut as actor/writer/director in this very refreshing story. He did it under the handicap from an accident suffered three days into shooting the movie, where he underwent tendon surgery and had to wear a splint on his hand for the film.
It's also a buddy movie and the buddies all have an affability of their own and seem like the sort of people you would see in real life and not on a Hollywood set. John talks with an Irish brogue and is the only one in the group married (Jane Adams) and with a child, Chuck is allergic to bees and wants desperately to avoid trouble and score with a girl, and has this silly notion to get the former owner of the ravioli place to listen to his idea to market shaving creme that is the same color as the shaver's beard, and then there is Herman, a Hispanic, who takes the part as a bad guy for the film when another ravioli worker is kicked off the film.
As if the tragic death wasn't enough for the boys to handle: John is left guilt-ridden by it; the police also contact Jimmy to help them nail some gangsters they are investigating. Jimmy and the boys soon find out that the ravioli factory is a money laundering place for the mob, and that their mean-spirited boss Augie (Ed) is involved. He is also the father of Amy (Catherine), who is going out with Jimmy. He forbids her to go out with him, even going so far as to beat Jimmy up.
The finale comes when Jimmy and the crew (John and family, Chuck, Amy), decide to get away from the city and go to the beach in Long Island; there, they run into the former owner of the ravioli place, Antonio Gintolini (Ragno), who acts suspicious around his fancy new house. But he invites all of them in and lets his hair down to tell John about his life yearnings and his failures, and how he got to name the factory 'Thursdays' because that was the best days of his life in the small-town of Italy he was from. That is the arranged day he saw his prostitute.
The film offers many keen observations about how these young people react to the tight situation they are in, and it examines in an amusing way their life-style and esprit de corps, but the story keeps coming back to Jimmy and how he is prepared to do anything to make his film, even if it means stepping on a few toes of some gangsters.
This is an energetic film, it has lots of black comedy and incisive dialogue to recommend it to an audience appreciative of indie films.
REVIEWED ON 12/3/99 GRADE: B-
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
ozus@sover.net
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