Last year the opening night of FLIFF 24 was a romantic comedy was chosen from unknown filmmaker, Jac Schaeffer’s “TiMER”. This year, for FLIFF 25, another romantic comedy was picked, but this time the filmmaker was Edward Burns. This is the 25th anniversary of The Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival after all.
“Nice Guy Johnny” tells the story of Johnny Rizzo (Matt Bush), a late night sports radio host in Oakland, California. He goes away for a weekend to his home state of New York where he is suppose to go on a job interview set up by his finance’s father. Johnny made a deal with his finance, Clair (Anna Wood) that if he is not making $50,000 a year by the time he is 25 he would quit what he loves doing and get a “real” job. He meets up with his Uncle Terry (Burns) while in New York who thinks he is crazy to give up on his dreams and even crazier to get married.