Up and coming director Vince Rocca has put his past talents to the test in his new film “Kisses and Caroms”. Vince is a high-school dropout who DJ’ed parties which afforded him to buy a business. Now a burgeoning filmmaker on the indie scene, he’s taken those slice-of-life experiences, along with an apparently healthy dose of love for Kevin Smith films, and used them to create his debut feature.
One morning Zack (Drew Wicks) wakes up in-between his co-worker girlfriend, Jennifer (Nikki Stanzione) and their other co-worker, Tara (Nicole Rayburn). As he slips off to work, Jennifer calls Dr. Bob (Bart Shattuck), a local radio psychologist (and her regular therapist) and confesses that she arranged a threesome in the hopes that Zack, who’d recently broken up with her to sow his wild oats, would see that they could explore their sexual limits together. Soon, she and Zack are at work and facing the uncomfortableness of the previous night’s tryst. They also endure a life in retail (they work in a Billiard shop) in this engaging “Clerks” homage.
A great romantic comedy with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments (the Last Supper conversation is a hoot!), “Kisses and Caroms” is an endearing debut for Rocca. It’s obvious that he worships Smith (it’s almost impossible to miss the ‘Jay’ scene), but he manages to keep his voice while still delivering a tribute to his hero. The cast is good, especially Ryan Parks as Zack’s lecherous buddy, David and Tom Ayers as The Unemployed Guy. Ginger Lynn Allen also makes an appearance as the lonely housewife who needs someone to deliver her, uh, balls. All in all, good clean fun!
The best and most natural moments of the film occur during the scenes depicting a life in retail. As someone who worked in that profession for almost ten ungodly years, I can attest to the ironic realism of it all. Granted, I’ve never had a naked man ask me if he can buy chalk, but the weirdness and stupidity that prevail over the common customer is told with hilarious honesty.
A light-hearted romp of a film, “Kisses and Caroms” manages to expound upon the boundaries of love without taking itself too seriously and reminds me that love can overcome ménage trios, psychotic psychologists and even sexy porn stars.
