New York City is synonymous with die-hard basketball fans, endless debates over the best bagels or pizza and its love affair with bodegas.
Inside these small neighborhood convenience stores are a plethora of household items and snacks. But for the protagonist of the city-centric, coming-of-age short film “Chop Cheese,” he finds the desire for something priceless.
The short, directed and written by Sophia Meloni, follows teen Dante (Luca Rickman) as he reckons with manhood. As he and his friends order a few chop cheese sandwiches one night, the bodega guy working the grill dubs Dante’s friend “boss.” That sends the young man on an obsessive quest to earn the same title, only to learn that respect has a price and must be earned. The film will have its world premiere at the Palm Springs International ShortFest.
Meloni is the daughter of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” actor Christopher Meloni, who also appears in the short film in a supporting role alongside actor Michael Gandolfini.
“Chop Cheese” will screen as part of the Strictly Business program at 5:30 p.m. Friday, June 26, at Festival Theaters. ShortFest runs Tuesday, June 23 through Monday, June 29.
Ahead of the short film’s world premiere, the father-daughter duo spoke with The Desert Sun about their love of bodegas, the film’s real-life inspiration and more. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What is it about bodegas and the people who frequent those stores that drew you to make this film?
SM: Growing up in New York is very different than growing up in LA because there’s just no space to hang out with people. When you’re a teenager and you don’t want to be in the house anymore, you’re just constantly loitering in any space that’ll have you. You’ll spend a lot of time in bodegas because they’re the people who won’t kick you out or you want a snack or you’re going to try to buy a beer. You have this sort of parasocial relationship with the people who frequent it and the people who work there, and they see you sort of come of age.
CM: I came to New York when I was 23, and it had a profound impact on me. When I arrived here, I psychically felt this is where I was born, this is where I was always meant to be. There’s something about the excitement of the people and the environment and space that I just gravitated toward. I understand the bodega thing.
Was this film inspired by real events?
SM: This is based off my brother Dante, who is also the protagonist’s name. He had a summer where he worked at Coca-Cola loading off the trucks and into the bodegas. It was sort of his pivotal coming of age summer. I watched that happen and thought it was such a New York story and such a salient universal story and very comedic.
When he worked at Coca-Cola, there was a driver who, much like in the film, he had this relationship with. At first the guy was maybe skeptical of Dante, and so Dante had to prove himself as a man. He would come home and talk about him. When I was doing the film, this driver drove me around to show me the ropes because I hadn’t been to the warehouse and didn’t know what they did. He explained it to me and spoke very highly of my brother. It was very sweet that he was this sort of older man sensei figure in my brother’s life.
CM: I thought what was very sweet, aside from it being an homage to her brother, it was an interesting take on coming-of-age. You don’t know when the penny’s going to drop, why the penny drops, why the need for affirmation from complete strangers. I thought it was an interesting glimpse into the awakening of boy into young manhood.
Chris, what was your pivotal moment?
CM: I worked all my life. My first job was when I was 14 years old. I had a series of jobs, mostly construction, sometimes mowing the lawn, etc. I’m a late bloomer, I guess, because the profound moment for me was at a construction site. I just graduated college, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. I’m hammering nails with some guy, kicking it around with my coworker, and he says, ‘Tell me about yourself.’ I say, ‘I just graduated college.’ He stops hammering and goes, ‘What the hell are you doing here?’ At a construction site in mid-February with sleeting rain coming at us. Just him saying that to me, I went, oh, right. The fall and school is not coming to rescue you. You’re now graduated, at a construction site, and you’re going to remain at the construction site, and it’s fine to stay on the construction site if that’s what you want, but if you don’t, you’ve got to figure it out.
Sophia, what was it like taking on directing and writing roles?
SM: We shot for three and a half days. I’d only really shot short films at college, which is so contained, you have all day, your friends are working for you, you have no obstacles. And then to be in a bodega on 139th Street on a Sunday when it’s really lively and everyone’s outside and there’s a lot of moving parts and you have a truck and you have all the gear sitting out … it was a lot to juggle. They say to write something that’s really cheap and really easy and really contained, and I was thankful that I didn’t have that voice in my head when I wrote it. I had this whimsical, idyllic (voice in my head saying) ‘we can do everything all at once because we’re 22 and we can run around the city and figure it out.’ My producer encouraged me to be that way and dream really big. I’m thankful that I did because it was so, so difficult to make everything work, and somehow we did and that’s the best way to learn.
Chris, when it comes to your role in the bodega with Michael Gandolfini, did you two get to largely improvise?
CM: We kind of cut the line, which is to say, I’ve known Michael since he was a kid. No other way to put it, I love the kid. That’s why I could be a little mean to him and all that. He’s such a sweet and talented person. I remember us working it out, I encouraged it. (His character) was learning how to be like his uncle, that’s why he keeps interjecting but he doesn’t know what he’s saying, he’s just sort of mimicking what his uncle is saying. Trying to be the boss man.
Working together and taking on the roles of director and actor instead of father-daughter must have been really interesting.
CM: One time, Sophia was directing a scene, and I said to her, ‘Can I bring something up that I’m seeing?’ I tried to tip-toe in. She looked at me, I saw her seriously consider it, and she goes, ‘Not right now.” And I go, ‘That is awesome.’ From that point, it’s like, she’s the director, she can run this set anyway she wants, and it’s not a father-daughter thing. OK, boss lady, do it.
SM: It didn’t feel strange because so much of what we do in the house anyway is collaborate and work together and play together in a creative space.
CM: She’s also been telling me what to do since she was 3, so the table’s been set.
What does the future of directing look like for both of you?
SM: I’m writing two features right now. One is more of a family-oriented one that plays on themes of coming-of-age, and the other one is very New York-oriented and captures the kinetic energy that I tried to achieve in ‘Chop Cheese’ of this very interconnected city with all these strange characters that coalesce to make a scene. That one is about DJs.
CM: Me and my life with directing is a complicated one. There’s so many hands in the stew and there’s a lot of salesmanship and that’s not really my gift. I think I would do better as a (John) Cassavetes kind of thing, a lock-and-load guerrilla style. That way it’s just mine, cobbled together just a tight, coterie of folks who I want to work with and I know are capable.
Finally, what is your go-to bodega order?
SM: I think it’s got to be a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich
CM: I was going to say ham, egg and cheese.
SM: My take on bodegas, or the whole what’s the best bagel in New York, what’s the best pizza in New York: It’s the one that’s closest when you’re the most hungover, when you need it the most, when you’re the hungriest.
How to watch
What: “Chop Cheese” screening as part of the Strictly Business program at the Palm Springs International ShortFest
When: 5:30 p.m. Friday, June 26
Where: Festival Theaters, 789 E. Tahquitz Canyon Way, Palm Springs
Cost: $20
More info: psfilmfest.org/shortfest/film-finder/strictly-business
Ema Sasic covers entertainment and health in the Coachella Valley. Reach her at ema.sasic@desertsun.com, on X @ema_sasic or on Instagram @emasasic.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: ‘Law & Order’ star Christopher Meloni, daughter talk new short film
Reporting by Ema Sasic, Palm Springs Desert Sun / Palm Springs Desert Sun
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Ema Sasic, Palm Springs Desert Sun | USA TODAY Network
