Variety.com

Posted: Fri., Mar. 7, 1997

NUNZIO'S SECOND COUSIN:

Tony Randozza - Vincent D'Onofrio
Jimmy - Miles Perlich
Mrs. Randozza - Eileen Brennan
Tony's Date - Harry Walters Jr.

In Tom DeCerchio's darkly comic, message-oriented "Nunzio's Second Cousin," Sgt. Tony Randozza (Vincent D'Onofrio), a gay Chicago police detective, gets a chance to exercise his own brand of justice when he and his black date (Harry Walters Jr.) are harassed by five hoodlums who believe it's a "good night for gay-bashing." Forcing them to recite in tandem "Gay people are nice people," Tony proceeds with a dinner invitation to the gang's handsome leader, Jimmy (Miles Perlich).

Centerpiece is a dinner at the house of Tony's domineering mom (brilliantly played by Eileen Brennan). Sharply written and deftly staged by DeCerchio, tale veers easily from dark, macabre humor to harsh words to violence. As Tony says, "Sometimes fags bash back."