Friends & Family
Directed byKristen Coury
Written byJoseph Triebwasser
Produced byKristen Coury
Linda Moran
Joseph Triebwasser
StarringGreg Lauren
Christopher Gartin
Tovah Feldshuh
CinematographyJohn Leuba
Edited byTom Swartwout
Music byKurt Hoffman
Distributed byRegent Releasing (US)
here!films (International)
Release date
Running time
87 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Friends & Family is a 2001 gay-themed comedy film directed by Kristen Coury and starring Greg Lauren, Christopher Gartin, and Tovah Feldshuh.

Plot

Stephen Torcelli lives with his partner Danny Russo in New York City. When Stephen's parents call to announce a surprise visit for his father's birthday, Stephen and Danny scramble to conceal their double lives. The Torcellis already know that Stephen and Danny are gay; they don't know that they're enforcers for the Patrizzi crime family. Stephen's father is an undercover FBI agent and if he learns of their criminal affiliation he'll be obligated to report them. Stephen and Danny have told them that they run a catering company, even though neither of them can cook.

Meanwhile, Don Patrizzi's daughter Jenny has announced her engagement. Even though her fiancé is not Sicilian, Don Patrizzi decides to throw her a lavish engagement party which gets combined with the birthday party for Mr Torcelli. Mrs Torcelli suggests that the boys cater the party, sending them into a panic. One of Don Patrizzi's sons is an excellent chef - and the other is a master decorator - so the Patrizzi boys take care of the food and the decor. As a special treat for Jenny, Don Patrizzi forcibly "invites" a U.S. Senator under his control to the party.

It is this guest who is of the most interest to the Jenningses, the parents of Jenny's fiancé. They run a militia group which has declared war on the United States government and they want to take the opportunity to hold the Senator, a representative of that government, hostage.

Oblivious to this threat, Don Patrizzi's soldiers have been enlisted to serve as waiters for the party. Reasoning that a catering company owned by a gay couple would have gay employees, they recruit a flamboyant friend of the Danny and Stephen's to give them a crash course on gay (including such vital information as the correct order of Elizabeth Taylor's husbands and the proper use of the expression "puh-lease!").

At the party all is going well until the Jenningses and their militiamen strike. They take the guests hostage and force the Senator to record a message for the media. Stephen and Danny, fearful that the tape will lead to police action and a deadly shootout, neutralize the militia with the help of the newly gay-acting Patrizzi soldiers and some random drag queens that were brought to the party for a vaguely defined purpose. With their cover blown, Stephen and Danny tell Mr Torcelli that they're ready for him to turn them in. However, the birthday he's celebrating is his 60th, meaning that he's been mandatorily retired and is no longer with the FBI. In other happy news for Don Patrizzi, Jenny's fiancé turns out to be adopted and he was actually born Sicilian after all.

Cast

Home media

Friends & Family was released on Region 1 DVD on October 21, 2003.[1]

Reception

At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score, the film has a score of 36 out of 100, indicating "Generally unfavorable" based on 7 reviews.[2] While filmthreat.com found the film "a mild but diverting farce" and that it includes many "Italian-American stereotypes". One sequence in the film "is politically incorrect to the point of subversive hilarity".[3]

References

  1. ↑ "Friends & Family". www.amazon.com. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
  2. ↑ "Friends and Family". Metacritic. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
  3. ↑ "FRIENDS AND FAMILY | Film Threat". 4 August 2003. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
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