Strait up

It won't come as a surprise to actor Steven Strait (and that name just isn't fooling anyone) that I've been in love with him from the very first time I saw him.


So it was entirely predictable that I would be going to see City Island, his latest movie, even if he was sporting a rather straggly beard.


After the debacle of his last epic -- 10000 BC -- in which he was, of course, magnificent, but (and I don't know if I can even bring myself to write this) they made him shave off his chest hair...

No, lost my train of thought.


Um... City Island is a delightful, quirky comedy about the family -- in this case, a perfectly ordinary working class/shouty arena of misunderstanding and dysfunction.


Which includes a daughter who the parents think is at college (but who has been kicked out and is now a pole dancer), and an acerbic teenage son who is sexually infatuated with massively overweight women:


Delightful though all that is, I mean, really, who cares? The only thing that should concern us is whether or not Steven Strait gets his kit off.

I'm delighted to tell you that, yes, he does:


In fact, he spends a significant portion of the film standing around topless (this is him with the nominal "star" of the film, Andy Garcia, although we all know that either one of Steve's magnificent nipples has more charisma and star appeal than Andy. That's not Andy's fault, of course: Steve just has world class nipples):


I can honestly say I am mystified as to why Steve works so rarely (he does a movie maybe every other year). Utterly mystifying: this man is a God.


I, for one, will be adding City Island to my DVD collection at the earliest opportunity. In fact, I wonder if this is the time to upgrade to Blu-ray? The freeze-frame stills must be so much better...