KISS ME, GUIDO: Sex farce. Starring Nick Scotti, Anthony Barrile, Craig Chester, Anthony DeSando and Christopher Lawford. Directed and written by Tony Vitale. (R. 92 minutes. At the Embarcadero Center Cinema.)
There's a terrific joke at the center of "Kiss Me, Guido," a comedy that opens today at the Embarcadero Center Cinema. Imagine "La Cage aux Folles" in reverse, with a pair of gay men coaching a strictly hetero Italian American stud in the fine points of swishing.
"Walk like this!" gushes platinum-haired Terry (Craig Chester) with a head toss and a grand, Auntie Mame extension of both arms. Good try, but hopeless: Frankie Zito, a wannabe actor from the Bronx, tries desperately to impersonate a queen -- he has to play one onstage -- but he can't shake the swagger out of his bones.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
If writer-director Tony Vitale had developed the joke of Frankie's awkward makeover, and played a bit more with gay- straight dichotomies, then "Kiss Me, Guido," which recently played in the San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, might have been transcendentally funny. Instead it's a bouncy, occasionally awkward diversion with sharply written characters and good actors.
Vitale, a first-time director and screenwriter, was born and reared in the Bronx, and he knows the territory, its archetypes, accents and attitudes. When the movie opens, 24-year- old Frankie is working in a pizza parlor and quoting lines from Pacino, De Niro and Joe Pesci -- every Italian American kid's favorite screen stars.
In New York slang, Frankie's a "Guido" -- macho, sexy, a little thick in the skull. He wears gold chains, oozes charm and good looks and comes from a wacky Sicilian family that includes a mom with Lily Munster skunk stripes in her hair and a con-man brother named Pino (Anthony DeSando). When Frankie catches Pino dancing the horizontal tango with Frankie's girlfriend, he breaks off their engagement and moves to Manhattan.
Enter Warren (Anthony Barrile), an actor and choreographer who has recently shed his boyfriend and needs a roommate. Frankie reads his ad in the Village Voice, figures "GWM" stands for "guy with money" and takes the leap from pizza, family and the Bronx to show tunes, gay culture and Greenwich Village.
Advertisement
Article continues below this ad
What follows is a sex farce with mistaken identities, false presumptions and a central character who's a bit too naive to be credible. Vitale doesn't go for the predictable: Instead of having Warren fall hopelessly in love with gorgeous Frankie, he turns them into friends, has Frankie pose as Warren's new boyfriend and gives Warren a broken ankle so Frankie has to replace him in a stage play that requires him to kiss a man.
Toss in a horny landlady (Molly Price) who jumps at men like a rottweiler on a soup bone; Warren's ex, played by Kennedy cousin Christopher Lawford (son of Peter Lawford and Patricia Kennedy); and a flamboyant, espresso-sipping rich kid (David Deblinger) who drops his birth name and goes by "."
"Kiss Me, Guido" is no big deal, but it's exuberant and well- acted and delivers the kind of honest, low-budget earnestness of "Daytrippers" and "Swingers" -- movies that also were made with 23 cents and a trainload of chutzpah and wit. Vitale, based on this early indication, especially his writing, could mature into an important talent.
Given the spate of gay movies this year -- we've seen "Love! Valour! Compassion!"; "In and Out," and "Alive and Kicking" and "Different for Girls" are coming up -- it'll be interesting to see if "Kiss Me, Guido" gets lost in the mix or if its cheerful look at gay-straight dynamics and its ability to spoof heterophobic biases as much as it does homophobic ones sets it apart.
