Broadway's Finest

This film festival favorite is a drama-comedy with foreseeable story twists. Three struggling young actors, looking to write as well as star in an off-Broadway show with some edge, begin work on a gritty crime thriller but can't finish the script for lack of know-how about the world of cops. Receiving an offer from a stage producer (Larry Pine) to bankroll the production, the trio—Lewis (Adam Storke), Goldstone (John Lavelle), and Willy (Nick Cornish)—decide to act like plainclothes police on the meaner streets of New York, chasing down the supplier behind a particularly lethal form of heroin that is ravaging the city. The most interesting aspect here is the conflict felt by Lewis, a former junkie who fears getting too close to the drug scene again. But that dark strain in one character is not enough to offset the more obvious elements in writer-director Stephen Marro's hall-of-mirrors screenplay, where life and art intermingle and the boundary between truth and fiction blurs. Although very predictable, Broadway's Finest still features some entertaining moments, especially during early scenes in which the protagonists try to hide what they're up to from family and friends. A strong optional purchase. (T. Keogh)