Bobby G Can’t Swim
Written and Directed by John Luke Montias
Starring John Luke Montias, Susan Mitchell
As small time coke dealers go, Bobby Grace (Montias) is pretty nice. Always smiling, never a frown, willing to take a bowling ball in payment for a few grams, and even the cops like to hang with him. His outside interests? Littering. This guy is responsible for about 30% of the trash on New York streets. When not tossing empties or tipping trash cans, Bobby wanders around the bars and street corners of Hell’s Kitchen, dealing a bit, providing emotional support to his hooker girlfriends, and helping the blind. And littering. When the chance comes to move a kilo to some out of town rubes, he’s all over it, ready to make that big step up. Bobby could be a motivational speaker if this coke dealer thing doesn’t pan out. While moving the big bundle around, he accidentally misplaces it before he collects and has an hour or two to avoid filing chapter 911. Fortunately, there’s a Mafia day labor pool in the area, and he picks up a temporary job as a hit man but doesn’t collect the payoff. Bobby’s having a bad day.
Gritty and depressing, Bobby G is a film where the characters and settings are more compelling than the story itself. Bobby’s connection is the suave looking Coco (Vincent Vega), and his dealing corner harbors some argumentative Puerto Ricans playing dominoes and philosophizing and chewing through cigarettes and St. Ides. Bobby tends to drop in on his main squeeze Lucy (Mitchell) while she’s working, and sometimes keeps her from killing the other woman in his life, the much sexier Gina (Donna Sonkin). Bobby himself is a man of few talents, except that he can pee really far. Really, really far. I’m not kidding. I guess that’s worth seeing.
