The Soap Myth

Boy has a scary visit to the barber

Playing hooky from school, Tony, a student/chorister at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, spends the afternoon at Central Park's Sailboat lake and retrieves a remote control device left behind by a pair of sailboat racers. Back in the schoolyard, Tony pretends that he has a car to go with the remote control. When another boy tries to take the control from him, it falls on the ground and a red remote-control sports car miraculously appears. The car "dances" to rap music and even brings Tony a can of soda. One day, a sinister-looking man with a briefcase steals the car and flees into the subway. Tony and his classmates pursue the thief to the Wall Street area and ask to inspect the briefcases of passing businessmen. Eluding the students, the crook hails a taxi and hurls the briefcase from the window. Next morning, Tony hears the sound of a sports car during a church service. Returning to its rightful owner, the magical car mysteriously reappears at the end of the processional.

The narrative unfolds as a timid young man, Cal, arrives for a date at the penthouse of June whose house resembles a whimsical modern art installation almost like Pee-Wee's Playhouse. He offers her roses, only to have them immediately rejected. What follows is a series of absurd, slapstick-inspired events—breaking a decorative bust, accidentally putting a fish in the June’s drink—that culminate in Cal posing shirtless on her indoor “beach” set, sparking June's creative epiphany and leading her to photograph him for a Vogue ad campaign. This short film was created in 1987 under the mentorship of Martin Scorsese while Gruber was a student at Columbia Film School, and has since earned a place in exhibitions at New York’s MoMA, cementing its status as a noteworthy artistic work.