Anthology feature project
Love & Tonic is an anthology film of seven intimate, character-driven two-handers, all inspired by the names of popular cocktails. Virgin Mary / Fruit Tingle / A Stiff Dick / Cool Breeze / Vampire’s Kiss / Sex on the Beach / Milk of Amnesia. All of the action is set in a little cocktail bar hidden away on the second floor of a boutique hotel.
A place called Bernard’s.
All of the vignettes — each turning on a new romantic encounter — play out like individual tracks in a favorite late-night playlist, dropping us in on awkward human collisions between strangers who bump into each other at exactly the right (or wrong) moment. Each capturing the rush and sting of modern relationships.
As one reader put it:
“Told with smart, pointed dialogue and a poignant understanding of the human condition, Love & Tonic is a raucous celebration of the beautifully messy ways in which people try — and so often fail — to connect. It’s a tasty and tantalizing low-budget indie that’s two parts Alexander Payne, one part Coen Brothers.”
The Stories
VIRGIN MARY Having discovered that her boyfriend slept around on her, a chaste young woman announces to the men in the bar that she wants to lose her virginity and that she’s open to all comers.
FRUIT TINGLE Just weeks from tying the knot to a bridezilla, a groom-to-be meets a stranger who causes him to re-think everything — including his fiancee’s meticulously laid wedding plans.
A STIFF DICK For his 50th birthday, a husband trapped in a sexless marriage decides to treat himself to some "strange”. Little does the call girl know, things are about to get very strange indeed.
COOL BREEZE Against all odds, a forty-something barfly who makes a clumsy play for the hottest woman in the bar manages to charm her. Too bad for him she’s not into dudes.
VAMPIRE’S KISS When an aging glam metal rocker, in town on tour, reconnects with his sixteen-year-old daughter, their reunion soon gives way to a demand: It’s time for him to become the father she never had.
SEX ON THE BEACH As a novitiate, a young nun-in-training shared an illicit and magical night with a with a handsome seminarian. Eight years later, she wants another bite of the apple.
MILK OF AMNESIA When a lit student reveals to her instructor that her sexually explicit story was not fiction at all but a factual account of the night they spent together, she’s gaslit into believing the tryst was all in her head.
The stories are bookended by a night-shift romance that blooms between the two Cuban immigrants (Bianca & Miguel) who clean the bar after hours.
Bianca is no-nonsense, hard-working — focused on doing what she has to do to make a life for herself in America. Miguel, by contrast, is outgoing and gregarious, a lover of life who’s eager to connect with others, especially pretty girls.
Their series of encounters — centered around Bianca’s sustained rejection of Miguel’s advances — play as intros and outros to the core narratives, knitting them together into a cohesive whole and culminating in a sensual, magical mambo dream sequence that plays under the ending credits.
Miguel and Bianca’s romance plays as interstitial material that knits the seven core stories into a cohesive whole.
Bernard’s Bar
There’s something really special about this bar. It’s quiet. Understated. A bit off the beaten path. A place where patrons of the hotel and those in the know can always expect attentive bar service along with the convenience of guest rooms available just upstairs. It’s a cozy place for a relaxed drink served by discreet bartenders who always seem to know what you want before you order it.
It’s a vibe that changes night by night depending on who’s story is being told. The hooker? She brings one thing. So sure of herself. So certain she’s got it all figured out. The nun who seems intent on getting the handsome priest up to her room? Are these stories for real? Who can tell? But they all bring a unique something to the night.
And we shouldn’t leave out the person behind the bar. Though they rarely say a word, they see and hear everything — clueing us in with a sideways glance or a raised eyebrow that a surprising twist or turn is lurking right around the corner.