Colorz of Rage Reviews

The good intentions of writer-director-star Dale Resteghini's painfully earnest drama don't help it rise above its making-it-in-the-big-city formula or its stacked deck of race-card cliches. African American singer Debbie Lewis (Niki Richards) asks her Italian boyfriend, Tony Mespelli (Resteghini), to leave Boston and come to New York with her, even though she doesn't have a contract with the big city music-business contacts who've promised her a deal. The move comes just in time for Tony, whose bigoted father kicks him out after learning that he's involved in an interracial romance. The couple arrives in Manhattan to find that Debbie's deal has evaporated and she ends up making the rounds of showcases and bistros. Tony, who wants to be an actor, puts his aspirations on hold and becomes a bike messenger to finance Debbie's dreams. Their relationship attracts the wrath of Khalil (Ali), a new recruit to a Black power movement who spots the couple in a subway station and chases them. He vows murderous revenge if he ever spots Tony again. Debbie selfishly refuses to take a pay-the-bills job, and Tony secretly turns to credit-card theft to support her. Fortunately, Debbie catches the eye of a club owner Rocco (Donald Scott Klein), who has ties to African American record producer Oliver Cross (Don Wallace). Just as Debbie appears to be getting her big break, Khalil is expelled from the brotherhood for hate-mongering, Tony is arrested and Debbie's mother phones from her deathbed. Tony is released on bail and Khalil tracks him down and nearly beats him to death. Will Debbie set aside her professional ambitions to support her loved ones? Filmmaker Resteghini overestimates his own charisma in making himself the center of this modern-day Romeo and Juliet tragedy. Resteghini's screenplay fails to balance the show business heartache and star-crossed romance and as a director, he releis excessively on close ups.