NDSU Spectrum: Movie review
Pseudo-‘Swingers’: ‘Manny’ finds humor in Hollywood fakeness
By JOHN HANSEN
March 8, 2002
“Do It For Uncle Manny” may be one of the first films directly influenced by “Swingers,” the 1996 indie hit about a guy who thinks he’s a player and his best friend with rock-bottom self-esteem. “Manny,” which was screened Wednesday night at Fargo: The Film Festival where it won Best Feature Comedy, serves up similarly clueless lead characters, but ultimately veers in a different direction, becoming a light-hearted yet intelligent parody of Hollywood fakeness more than an analysis of 20-something L.A. club hoppers.
Writer/director/star Adam Baratta admitted in a post-screening Q & A that he’s a big “Swingers” fan. The similarities are apparent in “Manny” — there’s even an homage where a mentally challenged tow truck driver (Louie Anderson) believes that that Danny and Stuart are the guys from “Swingers.”
Danny (Baratta) is a struggling actor with through-the-roof confidence and Stuart (Shane Edelman) is a successful lawyer with no self-esteem who wishes he was a writer instead. The two go club-hopping and Danny attempts to help Stuart pick up a woman, citing several “rules” along with way. For example: treat the woman who you are talking to as if she’s the only woman in the room. When Stuart attempts this, staring a woman down with a squinty face, the woman comes over and offers him eye-drops, which he promptly sprays in his mouth thinking it’s Binaca.
Meanwhile, the suave Danny uses similar tactics and ends up with business cards that read “Call me. I’d love to get naked with you.”
At the end of the night, Stuart finally does score with a sexy woman named Jenny (“Sliders” veteran Kari Wuhrer), who wants to drive the Rolls Royce that Stuart “borrowed” from his big-shot producer uncle Manny (George Wyner). They drive back to Manny’s mansion, where Danny says “I think she’s in love with both of us.”
This leads to a humorous conversation where the two buddies try to balance the positive of getting it on with Jenny with the negative of the gay overtones of a threesome. Of course, straight guys worrying about acting gay is a staple of Hollywood humor today (i.e. the famous scene with the “lesbians” from “American Pie 2”), but it’s certainly good for a few laughs here.
The next morning, the guys realize Jenny has stolen Manny’s gold Rolex watch, and they embark on a quest to get it back. From here, “Manny’s” plot takes several twists and turns before arriving at a surprise conclusion that’s slightly telegraphed but still fun. There are some fun gags along the way, including one where the “Let’s get naked” card ends up in the wrong hands. But a lot of the enjoyment of the film comes simply from the likeability of the leads, the carefree Danny, the hapless Stuart and the sex kitten Jenny.
There are a few times where it seems the script could have used a bit more polish. During one scene, it turns out that “two bucks” is actually a euphemism for “two hundred bucks,” which doesn’t quite ring true. And one of the characters, Big Ed (Barry Wiggins) undergoes a complete 180 in his personality for the sake of shock value.
But perhaps that’s excusable because the main theme of “Manny” is that Hollywood is all about perception, not reality. Oddly, Baratta seems to have a certain affection for that which he’s parodying, since Danny seems like quite a player. The twist is that he and Stuart are slightly more “real” than the other characters, which makes them fine audience surrogates.
“Manny” is especially impressive as an independent film shot in 17 days, but even without that qualifier, it clocks in as a very entertaining way to pass 90 minutes. If you missed it at the festival, keep an eye out for it in the future.
Title: “Do It For Uncle Manny”
Starring: Adam Baratta, Shane Edelman, Kari Wuhrer, George Wyner, Louie Anderson
Written and directed by: Adam Baratta
Grade: B+