The Freshman

Film student Clark Kellogg (Broderick) arrives in New York ready to start his first term, but within minutes smooth-talking hustler Victor Ray (Kirby) has relieved him of money and luggage. When Kellogg later chances across Ray, the latter makes amends by offering the distraught teen a part-time job with his uncle Carmine Sabatini (Brando) who, seen sprawled behind his desk at an Italian 'social club', looks every inch the Godfather. Kellogg's first assignment seems fraught with hazards... Writer/director Bergman's good-natured comedy makes light of gangster genre conventions, and humorously under- cuts some of the more portentous aspects of film academia: Kellogg's plight is rendered farcical when, at a seminar on Coppola's The Godfather, he begins to find disturbing similarities between his life and the movie. The casting, needless to say, is perfect, and Bergman keeps the various escalating intrigues clipping along at a brisk pace.