Palookaville
From the Archives
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Drama, Short Films, 26-Sep-2025
Things get turned upside down when a man wakes up believing he’s Joe Louis, the boxing legend. Theodore Collatos directs “Palookaville,” a New York dramedy that follows an unsettled man through a bizarre condition. JoJo begins his day at the deli and heads back to his sister’s Brooklyn apartment where he’s crashing. There, his sister spends the day watching an old movie, a childhood favorite of their father’s, and also tells her brother about the biography she’s been reading about Joe Louis. JoJo, seemingly uninterested, manages to piss his sister off, and she tells him to get lost for the night. From there, we watch JoJo as he scrambles through pitiful interactions trying to get formula to his baby-mama (Edy Modica) and their toddler. In dissociative bursts, JoJo envisions himself outside reality, and, when a crook takes a whack to the back of his head later that night, it brings out the Brown Bomber himself. “Palookaville,” originally made as a TV pilot, sets up an off-kilter character battling a newly-induced psychosis, leaving open the question of what the man might make of himself next. -JM. Writer and Director: Theodore Collatos. Cast: Howard Lester, Franqi French, Edy Modica, Karl Jacob, Mike Swift, Patrick Heraghty. Cinematographer: Jason Banker. Producers: Matt Grady, Carolina Monnerat, James Kimberling. Executive Producer: Sharron McMorrow. Creative Consultants: Frank Mosely, Cody Stokes.
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