King of the Corner (2004)

Director:

Peter Riegert

Writers:

Peter Riegert (writer)
Gerald Shapiro (writer)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. A Comedy.

Plot:

Leo Spivak (Peter Riegert) is drifting through life without a compass. His father (Eli Wallach) is aging fast...

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Peter Riegert	...	Leo Spivak
Isabella Rossellini	...	Rachel Spivak
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jennifer Albano	...	Carolyn
Eric Bogosian	...	Rabbi Evelyn Fink
Dominic Chianese	...	Stan Marshack
Beverly D'Angelo	...	Betsy Ingram Wexler
Peter Friedman	...	Arthur Wexler
Penny Fuller	...	Mrs. Hargrove
Jake Hoffman	...	Ed Shiffman
Alecia Hurst	...	Greta Braunsweig
Ashley Johnson	...	Elana Spivak
Steve Landesberg	...	Gregory Peck (voice)
Bill Lewis	...	Poker Dealer
Rita Moreno	...	Inez
Judy Reyes	...	Nurse Kathleen Dreihart
Cal Robertson	...	Todd
Phil Vos	...	Racetrack patron
Eli Wallach	...	Sol Spivak
Ben Weber	...	Bob
Frank Wood	...	Berenson
Harris Yulin	...	Hargrove

Also Known As:

The Pursuit of Happiness (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for some language and sexual references.

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R

Filming Locations:

Goldfield, Arizona, USA

Company:

Elevation Filmworks

Trivia:

Actor/director/co-writer Peter Riegert personally took this film from town to town, showing it in theaters to build word of mouth. He would usually stay for a day or two to meet and answer audience questions after each showing of the film.

Movie Connections:

Features Solitaire (1981) (VG)

A bittersweet comedy that deserves a wider audience

First comment: People, don't forget to submit a vote with your review! I'm reading the reviews and most are excellent, and I'm wondering why the overall rating is only a 6.3. Then I see a lot of excellent reviews with NO VOTE! I assume these are counted as ZEROs in the rating.

REVIEW - I saw this movie at the Philadelphia Film Festival on 4/16/2004. I thought it was very good - both sad and funny. My favorite part was the interaction between the main character, Leo (Peter Riegert) and his father (Eli Wallach). Eric Bogosian was also very funny as the rabbi. And although her part was small, it was worth seeing how great Rita Moreno looked - Wow, she looks amazing! She made Isabella Rossellini look like a haggard old frump. The daughter was nothing special, and the weakest link was the up and coming business hot shot played by Jake Hoffman (Dustin Hoffman's son.) He was too young and goofy to play a ruthless guy moving up in the business world.

It's a shame that a bittersweet comedy like this that combines elements of different genres and can't be easily characterized as a "Drama" or a "Comedy" or a "Tearjerker" will have trouble finding an audience. Hollywood's marketing people need to do a better job of finding an audience for these films - there are tons of people who want to see movies like this, and they are too lazy to figure out how to market them. It's easy to market to teenage boys - do a little work and figure out how to reach the audience who wants to see movies like this! The only scene I thought was a little unrealistic was the scene I'll simply refer to as the "underwear" scene. As the scene was going on, I thought maybe it was going to be revealed as a dream sequence - it just seemed like such a strange and out of character thing for Leo to do.

I would love to see this movie find its rightful audience. Many people would enjoy this movie.