Restaurant Reviews

Gen-Y auteur Eric Bross, who debuted with the generally dismal TEN BENNY, redeems himself handily with this perceptive, funny study of twentysomethings trying to find themselves while living la vie boheme. This time, the kids are the staff of PJ McClure's, a yuppie joint just over the river from Manhattan in Hoboken, NJ. There's sensitive bartender and aspiring playwright Chris (Adrien Brody), whose girlfriend dumped him after sleeping with Kenny (Simon Baker), a deeply shallow waiter/actor who rubs the betrayal in Chris' face by landing the lead in one of his plays. Other McClure's toilers include beautiful singing waitress Jeannine (Elise Neal) -- why Chris can't resist her is the film's central plot point -- three wisecracking kitchen guys (notably David Moscow's white homeboy-wannabee, Reggae); a couple of gay waiters (they include ex-Cosby kid Malcolm Jamal Warner, who's excellent); and a motley collection of other familiar types. This is fairly routine movie territory (think NEXT STOP, GREENWICH VILLAGE, BETWEEN THE LINES, or REALITY BITES), but despite the self-consciously contemporary dialogue and milieu, you don't have to be Gen-Y yourself to get it. Tom Cudworth's script gives the characters more depth than is the genre norm, and the ensemble acting is terrific; you've seen most of the actors' faces before, although you probably won't remember where. And Brody, who has the lean-and-hungry charisma of a skinny young De Niro, turns his potentially cliched, tortured artist character into somebody from whom you'd actually want to buy a drink.