Neil Perota never met a second helping he didn’t like. Or love, to be more accurate.
The protagonist in “Lbs.,” a new independent film now playing in select cities, lives to eat even though it’s killing him.
And while you may think you‘ve seen stories like Neil’s before. they’re rarely as honest – and unpredictable – as what’s unfolds in this unsentimental journey.
“Lbs.” serves up pinpoint cultural details of a Queens man facing a personal crisis, one told through an actor battling his own addiction to food.
“Lbs.” co-screenwriter Carmine Famiglietti stars as Neil, a heavyset man who suffers a heart scare that causes his sister to postpone her dream wedding.
The doctors insist Neil lose weight or risk further heart trouble, but he coaxes his friend Sacco (Michael Aronov) to sneak him Twinkies and other fatty treats.
He simply can’t stop eating.
That causes a rift between family members, and Neil decides to flee in order to save himself. He buys a decrepit trailer in upstate New York where he hopes to regain control of his weight – and life.
Director/co-writer Matthew Bonifacio bucks convention at nearly every turn. He pairs his main character with Sacco, a chronic drug user, to showcase how the twin addictions operate. The combination leads to some wonderfully tart dialogue which shows how addiction can be worse than a prison sentence.
Neil manages to make a lady friend while holed up in the woods, a relationship which stirs something deeper than lust within him. But even here the film throws a feint, keeping us guessing as to where Neil’s story will lead.
What’s left unsaid about Neil’s relationship with food is nearly as compelling as what we see on screen. Neil’s life isn’t unbearable, unless too much love – and meatball parmigiana – is a crime.
But it led to his condition all the same, and he needs to strip his life down to its core elements if he wants to survive.
The real story behind “Lbs.” gives the film more weight, no pun intended. Famiglietti suffered from his own eating issues as a young actor, and watching him battle his demons in movie form makes “Lbs.” an extra layer of humanity.
(Photo: Carmine Famiglietti stars in “Lbs,” a sensitive drama he co-wrote with director Matthew Bonifacio.)
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve yet to see any medium deal with weight issues in a satisfactory way. If the film focuses on the food being the problem then neither will this film.
The film is a portrait of a man at a personal crossroads … that’s why I found it so fascinating and novel. And it really doesn’t have “answers” to being overweight. It focuses on one man’s relationship with food … and the point when he realizes that relationship must change for him to prosper.
I wouldn’t go into the film expecting answers and from your description it sounds like the subject matter may be being handled differently than is normally the custom. But I’m jaded enough from what is typically put out to be suspicious of any film about being fat.
Sounds like this is the movie that Super Size Me could have been, if Spurlock had kept his friggin’ politics out of it.
I think I’m the only one who watched “Super Size Me” and got hungry … is that wrong?
LOL!
Actually, it made me swear off McDonald’s…for a couple of days, until I actually stopped to think about what Spurlock was really trying to say, and how he had gone about saying it, and I realized he was completely full of it. And now I eat McDonald’s more than ever, partly to spite him, and partly because it’s delicious.