Syracuse New Times review of Williamsburg: “Plenty of sharp dialogue to spare… Hilarious.”
“The chronology hops all over the map in this Brooklyn-based indie comedy, which somehow links the travails of insufferable writer Truman (Penny Bittone) with a chain-smoking sidewalk painter named Brother James (Russ Russo), music-video director Will (David Marcus), budding filmmaker and part-time mugger Miguel (Evertz I. Saenz-Perez), his sister Anna (Anna Lamadrid) and sultry Slovakian beauty Adella (Olja Hrustic).
Director Brad Saville’s non-linear lark uses as its McGuffin a stolen screenplay, which gives new meaning to the industry phrase “script in turnaround,” yet the interconnected vignettes mostly provide satiric jabs at the pretentious behaviors of these artsy types.
Saville prefers master shots of his black-and-white canvas to allow his cast lots of room to roam, and there’s plenty of sharp dialogue to spare, such as Truman telling his bedside playmate, “A writer must stay objective. Objectively speaking, love is impossible.”
There’s also a hilarious segment involving Will’s creative conference with Bed-Stuy rapper G-Train (Rayon Lawrence) about the casting for an upcoming music video titled “Land of a Thousand Hos,” with G-Train demanding, “I like my bitches exotic.” Whether or not this sequence is still funny during the post-Don Imus era, however, will be up to the viewer.”
