"Smiling Fish and Goat on Fire" is, in several ways, an Italians-in-L.A. version of "The Brothers McMullen."
It's evidently done by NYU students, with the print blown-up from 16 mm, grainy shadows and all, and filmed primarily in the house of the brothers who co-star in and co-wrote the screenplay.
The problems with the Opposite Sex are pretty much the same too, with one being a happy-go-lucky philanderer (that's "Smiling Fish") and the other a straight-arrow accountant being shredded by his long-time girlfriend (that's "Goat on Fire").
The new, magic realism element is an elderly black sage from the early days of race movies who provides oddball advice on love and the magic of the movies.
As twenty-somethings-in-and-out-of-love movies go, this is cute and likable.
(originally written 9/16/2000)
It's evidently done by NYU students, with the print blown-up from 16 mm, grainy shadows and all, and filmed primarily in the house of the brothers who co-star in and co-wrote the screenplay.
The problems with the Opposite Sex are pretty much the same too, with one being a happy-go-lucky philanderer (that's "Smiling Fish") and the other a straight-arrow accountant being shredded by his long-time girlfriend (that's "Goat on Fire").
The new, magic realism element is an elderly black sage from the early days of race movies who provides oddball advice on love and the magic of the movies.
As twenty-somethings-in-and-out-of-love movies go, this is cute and likable.
(originally written 9/16/2000)