Kevin Jordan Movies
A family struggles to keep their business afloat as they're dogged by personal crises in this drama from writer and director Kevin Jordan. Frank Giorgio (Danny Aiello) is the owner of Giorgio's Lobster Farm, a seafood shop in the Sheepshead Bay neighborhood of Brooklyn. The store has been in the Giorgio family for generations, and Frank, who takes enormous pride in Giorgio's, has had ambitions of expanding the business by adding on a restaurant. However, the bank has called in the loan Frank took out to build the dining room during a business downturn, and he goes through a series of both funny and desperate efforts to keep the wolf from the door. Meanwhile, Frank's grown children -- son Michael (Daniel Sauli) and daughter Lauren (Marisa Ryan) -- are torn between their desire to help their father, their mixed feelings about the man who put his business ahead of his family while they were growing up, and the knowledge that he's too proud to accept their assistance. As the familial tensions mount, Frank's marriage to Maureen (Jane Curtin) has begun to collapse, as her love for her husband is outweighed by her desire to move on. Produced in part by Martin Scorsese, Brooklyn Lobster was a personal project for Kevin Jordan, whose own father owned a lobster business which was suffering severe financial problems when he began the film. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Danny Aiello, Jane Curtin, (more)
Two brothers look for love under unusual circumstances in this independent comedy. Chris Remi (Derek Martini) and his brother Tony (Steven Martini) have an unusual family background: their parents, an Italian-American man and a Native-American woman, met on a tour of a Hollywood studio, and their Grandmother bestowed on them semi-traditional American Indian names, "Goat on Fire" and "Smiling Fish." These days, high-strung Chris and good-natured Tony share the house they grew up in following their parents' death in a traffic accident. Chris is having problems with his girlfriend Alison (Amy Hathaway), who bursts into tears whenever they have sex; meanwhile, Tony's girlfriend Nicole (Heather Jae Marie) is ready to give Tony his walking papers if he can't straighten himself out, though he's already got his eye on Kathy (Christa Miller), who delivers the mail in his neighborhood. Chris, who works for an accounting firm, is asked one day by his boss to pick up his Uncle Clive (Bill Henderson) from the airport. Clive used to work as a soundman for a independent African-American film company in the 1940s; he loves to reminisce about the old days and compares love to capturing "the perfect magnetic wave." Clive proves to be a romantic catalyst when Chris meets Anna (Rosemarie Addeo), an Italian immigrant who trains animals, and a fast friendship looks like it could grow into something more. The feature-film debut for Martin Scorsese protege Kevin Jordan, Smiling Fish and Goat on Fire won the Film Discovery at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Derick Martini, Christa Miller, (more)
Sinbad offers some unusual advice on how to make friends in this wacky comedy. Kevin Franklin (Sinbad) is a guy who dreams of starting his own business. However, getting it off the ground is another matter altogether, and soon Kevin discovers that the two loan sharks who fronted him money want to be paid, and paid promptly, otherwise Kevin will be spending some time in the hospital. On the run through an airport, Kevin is trying to find a way out when he overhears Gary Young (Phil Hartman) wondering where his friend is. It seems that Gary has arranged a reunion with an old friend from childhood, but since he hasn't seen him in 25 years, he has no idea what he looks like today, beyond the fact that he's black. Kevin fits the bill that far and claims to be Gary's long lost buddy, which Gary buys hook, line, and sinker. Gary seems to enjoy bonding with his old friend, and Kevin likes staying at Gary's fine home (and raiding his large icebox), but Kevin discovers that impersonating a stranger is a lot more complicated than he expected after he's forced to perform oral surgery and give a speech at a grade school "Career Day" presentation. However, this is all small potatoes on the "oh, no" scale when the loan sharks track Kevin back to Gary's home in the suburbs. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sinbad, Phil Hartman, (more)
