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"Breezy Comedy is in the Chips"
by David Elliot
MOVIE CRITIC
"Follow the Bitch" - not a sequel to "K-9" or "Beethoven" - is about the mostly male rite of the poker party. Exclusively male, according to Bill, host and master of the revels.
Acted by Ray Porter, whose jolly-guy smile is offset by a radio hipster's voice and a sure instinct for the nailing wisecrack, Bill expects his pals to show up every Friday to joke, banter, drink and man the cards til dawn. He's a writer, wry about his rejection slips, less wry about failure with women - he just about hates them.
In Julian Stone's film, Bill is shaken to find that his chums are now seriously involved with women. Andy, played by likable Dion Luther, is even planning to marry. What really unsettles Bill is Andy inviting a woman (not his fiancee) to share the party - pure heresy, the fouling of the sacrament.
Inevitably, Liz (Melissa Lechner) is not just a blastingly "hot" blonde in a red dress (made redder by her moon-glow skin and the blue walls of Bill's apartment) but a poker baracuda. The more Bill loses, the more abrasive are his comments and the faster are Liz's return shots (when she lasers through his macho armor, he's as stunned as Howard Stern would be if he ever got squelched by Robin Quivers).
This adult-enough comedy breezes along and narrowly avoids the tedium of too many close-ups and was craftily shot on a small budget. Writer and director Stone is spry with gender combat and the differences among the pals (well-cast, including funny, narrow David Teitelbaum, frantic to charm a pizza delivery girl, and blocky Michael Cudlitz, who is very subtle).
Though this is a stage-boxy ensemble piece, with rhythms of repartee familiar from TV sitcoms, Stone is on top of his game (one dim joker in his deck is Bill's flatmate who seems to be some sort of nudist simpleton. And the poster on view, "Sweet Smell of Success," is a bit heavy; "The Cincinnati Kid" might be better).
The poker action is never quite convincing. Players show their hands too easily and the "follw the bitch" (queen) game is never clarified or developed except as a series of pots won and lost.
The never quite fatally piggy Porter (a former San Diegan) and the suavely outspoken Lechner give the movie heat and heart, hauling it over some pitfalls of cuteness. "Follow the Bitch" (the title could scare off women who sould enjoy the movie) has made festival rounds to good response and is now getting its U.S. theatrical premiere in San Diego.
After that, show biz will decide. There were many films this summer with more stars on view and far more bulge of hype, but no nearly so entertaining. Few viewers can keep a poker face through it.
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