Director/Writer Adam Abraham and Actor/Writer Gibson Frazier were tired of doomy and gloomy independent features and wondered why nobody ever made a happy independent film. So they made one.
Man of the Century takes its cue from the studio-created screwball comedies of the '30s. Shot in gorgeous black-and-white, the film manages to re-create the heyday of Hollywood in the setting of grimy mid-90s Manhattan. Johnny, a naïve reporter who still seems to live in the 1920s, is the classic fish out of water, except that instead of the fish feeling out of place, he feels perfectly normal, and the rest of the world is left wondering what's going on, as in the film Being There (something clearly echoed in the poster for the film).
Frazier hits the right tone as the quaintly-hard bitten Johnny Twennies. Samantha (Susan Egan) realizes there's something odd about her new boyfriend, but can't quite put her finger on it. In fact, the inability of anyone to figure out just what it is about Johnny that's different is one of the charming things about the film.
The supporting cast includes Anthony Rapp of Rent as the gay starving artist/newbie press photographer who is Johnny's unhappy "sidekick", Bobby Short as the rest room attendant (if I recall correctly) with all the answers, and Frank Gorshin in a totally over-the-top cameo as a music impresario.
Farce isn't a genre seen often these days, and it's a difficult one to pull off, but Man of the Century does so with style and elan. Movements and gestures seem slightly exaggerated, but without ever falling into mugging for the camera. Everything comes together and all live happily ever after in an ending that would seem contrived in almost any other genre of film, but it works perfectly here. Man of the Century is hilarious, as frothy and sweet as an egg cream and as tasty, too.
The sidewalks of New York will never be the same thanks to sharp-dressing, fast-talking newspaperman Johnny Twennies (Gibson Frazier), an ace reporter...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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