Suckers Movie Review

How can you help but love a movie that starts with a title card reading, "This shit's true..."

Detailing the wacky misadventures over a month on the job at an auto dealership, apparently car sales is a far nuttier career choice than anyone had imagined. In fact, it's downright vicious, especially the way it's done at South Side, where bossman Daniel Benzali (channeling Alec Baldwin's Glengarry Glen Ross character) is the kind of megalomaniacal nightmare you run into only in politics and Hollywood.

The salesmen all have their own curious stories that follow them on and off the job. One salesman has sex with a woman on a test drive and she steals the ride. Another deals with racism as he tries to get his sister out of Afghanistan. But mostly the movie follows Bobby (Louis Mandylor), who's in debt to loan sharks and takes the car sales job to please his wife Donna (Lori Laughlin).

The front of the movie is enjoyable enough because it's a comedy -- watching the salesmen screw one customer after another out of his money. And it's totally believable (co-writer Joe Yanetty was once a car salesman). But by the midpoint, the film has devolved into a mob/smuggling/drug story, which is not only unbelievable, it's not interesting.

The DVD extras are worth mentioning, including a short narrative wherein Yanetty gives a little presentation on how to buy a car! Two commentary tracks (one involving a dozen actors talking at once) are also available, as are some early works of director Roger Nygard -- a couple of shorts he made as a kid and the trailer to his documentary Six Days in Roswell.

A real song and dance man.