Lotto Land

Kitchen-sink realism, Brooklyn-style, from first-time writer-director John Rubino. This sincere, generally upbeat urban melodrama revolves around young Hank Stokes (Larry Gilliard, Jr.), a working stiff who blows his savings on the lottery, hoping for a $27 million ticket out of the ghetto. Meanwhile, his father (bluesman Wendell Holmes) takes halting steps toward intimacy with a longtime neighbor (Suzanne Costallos), who just happens to be the adoptive mother of Hank's ambitious girlfriend (Barbara Gonzalez). Rubino's rather awkward screenplay is enhanced by winning performances and a genuine feel for life and love in the outer boroughs.