John-Luke Montias Movies

The fates of a Mexican woman sold into sexual slavery, a car thief seeking to go straight, and a Japanese assassin converge on the streets of New York City in director John-Luke Montias' complex crime drama. Lured to New York from Mexico with the promise of a stable restaurant job, Olivia (Jessica Pimentel) finds herself imprisoned in an inner-city bordello and forced into prostitution. She's under the thumb of Albanian pimp Milot (Stivi Paskoski), who has recently dethroned a Chinese mob boss named Eddie Chang (Clem Cheung). Chang is none too pleased to see Milot encroaching on his business, and hires Japanese hitman Tomo (Jun Suenaga) to take care of the competition. Meanwhile, gullible car thief Joey (Montias) bickers with his uncle Jack (Gene Ruffini) about the best way to go legit, and Olivia finds herself in hot water after attacking her latest john, a crooked cop, in a moment of unbridled rage. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

John-Luke Montias makes a triple-threat debut as writer, director and star of the tense urban drama Bobby G. Can't Swim. Bobby Grace (John-Luke Montias) is a small-time drug dealer who is just trying to keep himself above water, selling cocaine to a collection of losers and ne'er-do-wells in New York's Hell's Kitchen. Despite the pathetic circumstances of his life, Bobby and his pals -- girlfriend Lucy (Susan Mitchell), who makes her living as a hooker; Popeet (Norman Middleton), a blind man who has a knack for finding salable objects, and Coco (Vincent Vega), Bobby's supplier -- are convinced that somehow their lives will get better. One day, Bobby's ship would seem to have finally come it; he meets an upscale customer who wants to buy an entire kilo of coke. The deal should earn Bobby a payday big enough to allow him to get out of dealing, but the customer demands product before payment, and when the payment doesn't arrive, Bobby's gravy train turns into an anchor threatening to take him to the bottom of the ocean. Bobby G. Can't Swim received an enthusiastic response in its screening at the 1999 Santa Barbara Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi