Local Color

A young artist seeks inspiration from an older man (and freedom from his own father) in this wise and warm coming-of-age tale, one infused with a love for impressionist art and loosely based on director/screenwriter/artist George Gallo's own life. The quiet, dreamy John would rather visit museums or practice painting than play baseball or chase girls, a fact that gives no end of worry to his rough-hewn, anxiously homophobic father John Sr. (Ray Liotta, breathing fire). When a local art aficionado turns him on to the impressionist paintings of reclusive Russian immigrant Seroff (Armin Muehler-Stahl) and then informs him that Seroff lives nearby, John impulsively decides to find Seroff and hopes that the man will teach him. Unfortunately, their first meeting doesn't quite go as planned ("I don't teach and I don't paint," Seroff huffs before slamming the door). But John's perseverance (not to mention his gifts of vodka) soon sways the gruff old maestro. Learning about painting is one thin