King Candy (film)
King Candy is a 2015 American independent drama-thriller short film directed, produced and written by Ralph Sepe Jr., starring Sepe Jr., Ian Goodman, Alexondra O'Connell, Greg Scavelli, Michael Sepe and Charlie Grippaldi. It chronicles the story of Glenn Leighty, a teenager who eventually starts a scamming business under the guise of a charity to gain money for himself, who often narrates the film and explains the events throughout.
The film originally was released online on YouTube on March 27, 2015, but was selected for the Queens World Film Festival and premiered at The Secret Theatre on March 17, 2016.
Plot
Glenn Leighty, a 17-year-old unreliable narrator, begins the film by stating through a video that everyone isn't special, but before telling his story, he remarks that he is "the important one" in and believes that anyone can be important for their story, and then begins.
In the story, Glenn is a member of a club, where any member requires "points" to maintain their membership, with these points collected by a deed of their choice. Because of this, he sells candy for money collected completely by the club and delivered to an organization, which gives him points. One time, he falls short of his goal but the club doesn't check, proceeding to do it multiple times after. He also tries to do a subscription-based business to earn money, to his failure and eventually quits the club and establishes a scam as a charity club donating to Africa, gaining members and profit. He adopts a practice where members earns half of the money.
Despite the success and growing presence of the club, fellow member Nick attempts to expose Glenn and the club. This forces him to start donating money to keep the club's reputation afloat, bribe the hall monitor, Brian, as well as alienating Nick purposefully in the process. Regardless, the club members start to lose respect for him, enlisting the help of a gang called "The Vultures" to enforce his leadership. Nick manipulates Tim into buying drugs from the Vultures, and the police arrest their leader, Andrew. After forcing knowledge from Tim, Glenn violently attacks and injures Nick, while Tim looks on. Glenn gives Tim his gun, and Tim attempts to shoot him. However, Glenn reveals that the gun is fake. This event leads the school to investigate the club, where Glenn and his girlfriend Heather lie and manipulate the truth successfully with help from Brian and the members, destroying Nick's reputation but disbanding the club as a result.
Finishing the narrative, Glenn recounts the events and states that no matter what, he recognizes the viewer as an "observer" with knowledge of what he has done as accounting for a reason but only by viewing the film. The film ends with Glenn driving away in his car while "The Blue Danube" plays in the background.
Cast
- Ralph Sepe Jr. as Glenn Leighty
- Ian Goodman as Nick
- Alexondra O'Connell as Heather
- Greg Scavelli as Brian
- Michael Sepe as Tim
Additional roles
- Charlie Grippaldi
- Ryan Ostwerwald
- Roberto Pasalaqua
- Joeseph Acierno
- Daniel Marini
- Michael Kohen
- Andy Ordonez
- Steven Piork
- Vis Haripal
- Anthony Narchet
- Catia Sepe
- Daniel Blanco
- Eddie Denicola
- Grayson Jacob Scott
- Jimmy Karlin
- Antonio Pizzarelli
Release
The film was released on March 27, 2015 onto Ralph's YouTube channel but premiered as a selection from the Queens World Film Festival at The Secret Theatre on March 17, 2016. The bloopers for the film were released on April 1, 2015.