Actor Jason Alexander's directing debut, a nostalgia piece set in 1955, contains some nicely observed moments, but they're buried in an unrepentantly sitcomy script. Young Lenny (Ryan Merriman), the product of a bustling Jewish neighborhood in the
Bronx, is obsessed with sex; his summer goal, to spy on a couple indulging in the "act of love." He's also deeply unhappy that his widowed mother, Sylvia (Patti Lupone), has remarried less than a year after his father's death, to a man whose name he can't even bear to say. Lenny calls his
stepfather (Richard V. Licata) "the fat butcher" and pointedly refuses to eat the choice cuts he brings home from his Kosher shop. Hopi...
Released:
2000
Rated:
R
Length:
94 mins