Prevarication reigns (and rains): Phil Allocco's goofy, funny rom-com, THE TRUTH ABOUT LIES

Though it has been sitting around for two years now, hitting the festival circuit while waiting for release, a rom-com called THE TRUTH ABOUT LIES -- written and directed by Phil Allocco (shown below), who earlier made a name for himself as guitarist in the band, Law & Order  -- turns out to have been worth the wait. The movie is funny, charming and goofy as hell, and it sports a first-rate cast of good-looking actors who also know how to create the proper chemistry together, as well as nailing the humor as easily as the romance. 

You will have to suspend your disbelief a bit at some of the whoppers you'll be asked to accept here, but since Allocco has made his movie all about lying, and his leading man, the hugely under-appreciated comedic hottie, Fran Kranz (shown below in romantic mode and and further below in comedic), handles these lies with such amazing aplomb that, for maximum enjoyment and fun, it's best to simply go along on this wild ride. 

The filmmaker's point would seem to be that we all lie to each other all the time, but if we can just ground those lies in a healthier life style -- a decent job, apartment, mate, diet and more -- then we'll get by just fine. What? How dare he! 

Mr. Allocco dares, all right, and he pretty much gets away with it, too, thanks to some clever writing, decent direction, and the ministrations of his first-rate cast. Mr. Franz has long been one of my favorite rom-com actors, and once again he acquits himself royally. Whether he's falling in love, above, or killing time in the men's room, below, with a couple of rolls of toilet paper, he's alternately sexy and funny and always fun. 

His suddenly former and soon-to-become girlfriends are played by Mary Elizabeth Ellis (below) and Odette Annable (further below), the former with a lot of anger and sass, the latter with such graceful beauty and charm that she'll sweep you off your feet, just as she does our hero his.

Allocco peppers his movie, via title cards, with frequent and often terrific quotes about lies and truth -- and their effect on us all. Many of these quotes are first-rate, and they'll make you think (and laugh) as much as does the movie itself. 

In the supporting cast are other good (and good-looking) performers such as Miles Fisher (below, as Kranz's best friend) and Chris Diamantopoulos (at bottom, playing Annable's husband). 

From time to time the movie will put you in mind of early-Woody Allen. But, hey, early Woody Allen ain't bad. And neither is The Truth About Lies. And if the movie will not set the world on fire (we can leave that to Donald Trump), it's nonetheless a pleasurable enough outing for those who appreciate the rom-com genre.

Opening theatrically in some 25 cities across the country this Friday, October 27 -- in New York City, it hits the Cinema Village; in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Monica Film Center -- the movie, running 94 minutes, will be available digitally, as well. Click here, then click on Screenings in the task bar, to view all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.

Comedy, crime, romance and "catricide" dot Gillian Greene's droll farce, MURDER OF A CAT

Talk about bizarre movies: After yesterday's winner, The Foxy Merkins, today we cover another oddball film for which there is not much precedent, so far as I can recall. MURDER OF A CAT, the new movie from first-time-full-length filmmaker Gillian Greene, is very nearly uncategorizable. Maybe think of it as a kind of throwback. But to what? The closest match might be the screwball crime capers of the 1940s, with a man in the role usually reserved for a woman: the clueless and not very bright "investigator" who sets the plot in motion. Really: This movie sort of mimics the sensibility of that family from You Can't Take It With You but sets its behavior down in the midst of our 21st Century.

Ms Greene (shown at left) is also known, evidently, as Mrs. Sam Raimi (Sam was one of the producers on the film) but what she has come up with would never be mistaken for a Raimi endeavor. Her movie begins with what looks like a nail-biting escape. By whom? From what? We don't know, but the escapee sure looks scared. Then we get the title card that reads Five Days Earlier and we're whisked back in time to a pleasant surburban street and a yard sale involving a bratty kid, our beleaguered hero and the cat that will soon be headed for kitty heaven. Also on tap: out hero's semi-nattering-but-really-pretty-decent mother; a local law-enforcement officer who's infinitely nicer and more patient than any you'll have seen on film in this century; a heroine who's up to something besides being heroic; and the owner of the town's superstore which has put a number of other local small businesses out of business. Including that belonging to our hero.

So the stage is set for... what? Just about anything you might guess. And the plot's twists and turns certainly encourage this kind of helter-skelter approach in which one odd thing leads to another even odder. The movie really turns on the role of Clinton Moisey and the performance of Fran Kranz (above) in that role. Mr. Kranz has impressed in some of the work of Joss Whedon and his crew, but here he gets the kind of bizarre role that actors either embrace or go running from as fast as they can. Kranz embraces it and then some.

From the near-fright wig he wears initially to his self-righteous attitude, constant bumbling and wrong-headedness, he makes Clinton a hero that only a mother (and maybe a girlfriend) could love. And he is just loony enough to finally win us over. In the role of the girlfriend and cat-sharer, Greta, Nikki Reed (above) makes a pleasantly abrasive other half of the investigative team,

while J. K. Simmons (above), always great fun to watch, plays the local Sheriff in such a pleasant and patient manner than he almost makes you forgot his Snidely role in the current Whiplash. Blythe Danner as the sweet, thoughtful mom; Greg Kinnear, offering up all kinds of charac-terizations as the owner of that megastore; and the wonderful Leonardo Nam as the store's most bizarre employee round out the main cast.

As a filmmaker, Ms Greene wisely concentrates on low-key humor rather than mystery or suspense (as both of the latter are either ridiculous or missing in action), and thereby succeeds in making her movie work pretty well. Overlong by maybe ten minutes, Murder of a Cat never pushes too hard and so ends up being a lot more charming than you might expect.

The movie -- from Gravitas Ventures and running 101 minutes -- opens today, Friday, December 5, in New York City at the Village East Cinema. Simultaneously, it will also be available via VOD platforms, Amazon, Apple and iTunes.