Local Color

The summer of 1974. A troubled eighteen year old who wants to paint meets an old painter living in his town. The man was once a good painter; now he drinks and has turned his back on painting and on life. The boy wants to learn from him and will not let him alone. Over one summer the two of them learn to put up with each other. George Gallo wrote and directed the film out of his own youth; Gallo painted before he became a screenwriter. Armin Mueller-Stahl plays the old painter and Trevor Morgan the boy. Ray Liotta and Ron Perlman are also in the cast. The telling likes talking about art enough that it lectures in places; but the relationship between the two actors carries the film. It was a small production and left no mark at the box office.