Night Maneuver

Korder is best known these days for 1985's Boys' Life (due for a Second Stage revival later this fall). Interestingly enough, Night Maneuver could just as easily have been called by Boys' No Life. Lou (Caronna), ostensibly working at an auto parts outlet but more preoccupied by minor drug dealing, is playing host to younger brother Tim (Smith) in his low-rent apartment. What's clear from the get-go is that the only time pathetic nobody Lou feels he can exercise any power is when he's baiting younger and even more mentally dim Tim.

The action -- such as it is -- covers something like 24 hours in the boys' lives, when Tim is crashing on Lou's floor, and Lou is waiting for a phone call about an apparent drug deal that evidently means a lot to him. He takes advantage of the downtime by humiliating Tim and tricking him into at least one brother-on-brother wrestling match during which he cheats. Lou repeatedly demands that Tim clear out and just as repeatedly invites him to stay. Continually, he mocks Tim's friendship with someone named Petey, whose very existence is eventually called into question. Just as frequently, Lou reminds Tim how much he was disdained by their older brother Monty.

Many of the two-hander's gritty aspects are presented without much clarity. Since both Lou and Tim seem to be at least intermittently delusional, it remains an open question whether Lou's drug deal is even real or merely a figment of his demented imagination. Perhaps ambiguity was Korder's objective when he set his characters in flailing motion. If so, he miscalculated in his estimation of audience tolerance for so much unspecific information.