Tomorrow Night

Louis C.K.
USA, 1998, 87 mins.

Producer/Screenwriter: Louis C.K.
Director of Photography: Paul Keostner
Production Designer: Amy Silver
Editor: Doug Abel
Music: Neal Sugarman
Principal cast: Chuck Sklar, Martha Greenhouse, Heather Morgan, Rick Shapiro, J.B. Smoove, Joe Dolphin, Greg Hahn.

In a dingy Manhattan coffee shop, a taciturn man named Charles drones to Florence, the elderly woman he has fallen for, "You expressed some interest in entering into a situation, and I feel that we may be compatible ... I find your tidiness to be appealing." Comedian Louis C.K.'s deranged debut feature is something like Eraserhead meets Brief Encounter. Charles is a photo shop owner whose only pleasure comes from an unmentionable use of ice cream. Florence is an unhappily married woman whose best friend is a young man in drag. Further plot description is futile as this bizarre romantic comedy must be seen to be believed. Tomorrow Night is directed with surprising elegance and understatement. Moody black-and-white cine-matography and touching yet eccentric performances add up to a potential cult favorite. - David Schwartz