So a Delivery Driver, a Frenchie Bulldog, and a Couple of Wrestlers Walk onto a Movie Set...
A review of Tito, a short film you should make time to watch
“What happens when a night goes too long?”
That’s the tagline for the short film, Tito, a simple question that maybe half the population at best can identify with. Obviously, not everyone is involved in questionable activities after the sun goes down, like the protagonist of this film. Some people party too long. Others are in the business of serving people who party too long. Second- and third-shifters long for a bed long after their first-shift peers are tucked in and cozy. But yeah, there are people who work the night because the cover of darkness is the best time for them to engage in business practices that may or may not be legal.
Tito is a 24-minute film that follows the night for a delivery driver at his wit’s end. It is the debut effort for Sell the Leg Productions, a team that includes the director/writer combo of Anthony Notarile and Andy Tworischuk. I follow Andy on Twitter, and when I tell you his life was consumed by making this picture for the last year, it’s not a lie. The excitement he himself generated for the movie was infectious, a labor of love.
A full disclaimer, I am not really a movie guy. I prefer music, video games, and sports to fulfill my free time. It’s not to say I don’t watch movies. I’m just not a cinephile like half of Twitter. However, if something catches my interest, I will go out of my way to view it. Most recently, this happened with Dune. Why did Tito have the hook, outside of wanting to support a friend? I may be the most basic asshole in the world, but the hooks were the fact that the cast contained two professional wrestlers I happen to enjoy, and also, the titular Tito wasn’t a person, but a French bulldog. Sometimes, all you need is something familiar to pull you in.
Claudio Castagnoli obviously is the bigger name to appear in this movie. Known in his WWE days as Cesaro, Castagnoli is renowned as one of the best technical grapplers in the world. His free agent signing with All Elite Wrestling was the most energizing one the company had made since bringing aboard Bryan Danielson and Adam Cole at All Out 2021. He plays Lucky, the unnamed protagonist’s boss. It’s a smaller role, confined to the second scene in the movie, but he wears the Eastern European crime boss hat well.
Joseph Ruud is more familiar to people under the names Erick Rowan and Erick Redbeard. A lot of his career has been a meme, unfortunately. He spent most of it as a minion of Bray Wyatt in WWE alongside the late Luke Harper/Brodie Lee. While Harper received plaudits for being underutilized, few recognized the latent charisma and brooding big man HOSS POWER that Ruud brought to the table, especially his bosses. He was served up to be skewered by The Rock at WrestleMania 32, and his stairs match with The Big Show is in the foundation of modern WrestleCrap lore. I never thought he deserved the shabby treatment, and thankfully for viewers here, neither did Sell the Leg Productions.
Ruud, as the crime boss Hammer, plays an integral role in the movie. He’s charming but menacing, a natural actor who helps bring the scenes with his gang together. Tiny Ginzo, played by Notarile, and Heidi, played by Carol Todd, are outrageous characters, whose colors would veer outside the lines if not for Ruud’s Hammer bringing them back in and painting the edges with his own absurdity. In short, Ruud was a revelation, someone who took an opportunity that he never got in WWE and shone with it. I could see him becoming a Dave Bautista-level success story, working as a strongman character in artier, more elevated films before parlaying it into a franchise role.
The other thing about the cast that impressed me, other than Tito the bulldog of course, was the main character, known simply as “The Delivery Driver.” Alexei Bondar in this role was gripping, believable as a desperate man in search of fulfillment, something better. The desperation was palpable, and a lot of it had to do with his interactions with his silent co-star, Tito (played by Winston the Frenchie). Everyone’s been there, talking in their hour of need to something, some creature that can’t talk back. For some, it’s a reptile, a stuffed animal, a cat, a houseplant, whatever. The metamorphosis Bondar’s delivery driver undergoes over this half-hour is astounding, and using the dog, an animal for whom he cares and even at one point wonders if the roles were reversed if that care would be reciprocated. There’s so much pathos in this performance that when the film resolves, at least I got a sense of justification for his entire arc. Again, no spoilers. Watch the movie.
Tito taught me two things. One, maybe I should be a movie guy. If this one was good, then what the fuck am I waiting for to watch The Godfather or Casino? I spend enough time on here defending Martin Scorsese, right? The second thing is that a short film doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be short on plot. Everything was compressed here, sure, but in 24 minutes, several characters were fleshed out enough to get their entire essence so that when certain things happened, they reached the height of their emotional impact. I’m dancing around actual events here because it’s a 24-minute movie that I’m not spoiling. Watch it. Watch it here, actually:
What I’m saying is give this movie a chance. It’s 24 minutes that will leave an imprint on you. Big ups to the filmmakers, especially Andy. If you wanna see some of his other best work, well, I present to you this tweet video: