| Can a gay and a straight man work side by side productively and even help each other in amorous pursuits? In Hit and Runway, directed by Christopher Livingston, an aspiring girlchasing Italian-American screenwriter, Alex Andero (played by Michael Parducci) is enrolled in a course to learn how to write films; his cousin Norman Rizzoli (played by Bill Cohen) likes his idea for a script, but Alex just does not know how to write. Because his father has died and his mother is getting on in years, his older brother Frank (played by John Fiore) requires his services as a dishwasher for the family restaurant and discounts his writing ability. Frank also needs the services of a waiter, so he hires Joey (played by Kerr Smith), who is gay. One day Elliot Springer (played by Peter Jacobson), a talented screenwriter who is gay and Jewish (and resembles Woody Allen), spots Joey as a waiter at the restaurant. Wanting to cruise Joey, Elliot goes into the restaurant to ask him to consider playing a part in his latest screenplay, “Chicken of the Sea,” which he leaves with Joey, who has no interest. One day the play falls on the floor, Alex picks it up, sees the name and telephone of the author, and he decides to seek help from Elliot to learn screenwriting skills. After learning each other’s idiosyncrasies, the odd couple teams up, and they ultimately present their product to a film producer as well suited for Jagger Stevens (played by Hoyt Richards), a macho megastar. Secretly, Alex sends Elliot’s screenplay, too, but puts his own name down as the author. When the partners meet the producer, he suggests radical changes and demands a rewrite in a week or two, but Elliot persuades Alex to reject the offer. Jagger, however, is excited by “Chicken of the Sea,” admits that he is gay by kissing Alex, who then admits his indiscretion. Next, Hollywood accepts Elliot’s script to the tune of $100,000, and “Hit and Runway” becomes a smash movie in due course. The plot, however, is more complicated, as we are treated to courtship problems as well. Middle-aged Elliot, for example, wants to have sex with cute twentysomething Joey, and he only agrees to cowrite with Alex in order to get closer to Joey. Alex, knowing that screenwriting will never begin until Elliot scores with Joey, encourages him to be more self-confident, sets up a date between the two, and Joey astonishingly admits that he is fascinated with Jewish culture. The two begin an affair, but at a Jewish celebration, Joey meets Elliot’s rabbi, and soon Joey and the rabbi are carrying on while Alex and Elliot are intensively involved in screenwriting. After Elliot meets Jagger, the two become lovers. Girlchasing Alex spurns a fellow screenwriting student, Gwen (played by Judy Prescott), because she wears glasses, preferring attractive Lana (played by Teresa DePriest). However, during the screenwriting Elliot tries to develop a bespectacled female part into an important character who takes off her glasses at a critical moment and attracts the desire of the male lead, thus giving Alex the idea that he should pursue Gwen’s inner beauty rather than Lana’s shallow exterior beauty. Thus, the story takes place at two levels. But there is a third level of dialog — the humor. Many clever lines punctuate the film, keeping filmviewers chuckling and smiling throughout. The best line is an early Rodney Dangerfieldish remark by Elliot, who says that he once bought a dildo, only to have it become soft. The second best line is Elliot’s response to a complaint that the busily decorated wall of his apartment should be more neutral — “What should I do, hang a map of Switzerland?” Amid the campy jocularity and rather syrupy happy ending, the deeper meaning of Hit and Runway, cowritten seemingly autobiographically by Jaffe Cohen and Christopher Livingston, is that gays and straights have a lot to learn from each other if they would just drop the fears and the pretenses, the ridiculous rivalry between sexual Montagues and Capulets, and just become friends. MH |