A straight Italian goombah and a gay Jewish fuss-budget collaborate on an action-movie screenplay. The plot of Hit and Runway is the stuff of sit-coms, but Christopher Livingston’s film is definitely a cut above. Livingston wrote the script with Jaffe Cohen, a member of the New York comedy troupe Funny Gay Males, and both seem intimate with the foibles of close creative partnership.

Alex (Michael Parducci) washes dishes in his family’s café but wants to make it big in Hollywood. Elliot (Peter Jacobson) is the talented neurotic writer who just doesn’t believe in himself. As they hash out their screenplay, Alex discovers his vulnerable side and Elliot learns that plenty of guys find Jewish men sexy, notably Joey (Kerr Smith of Dawson’s Creek), who gets turned on by the guttural sounds of Yiddish and Hebrew. Hit and Runway must be the first film to feature a gay-friendly Chanukkah service led by a randy rabbi. These and other sophisticated touches make up for obvious shots at the movie business and Jacobson’s tendency to overdo the ethnic shtick. At one point, a member of Alex’s family admits that he enjoyed In & Out on video, especially the performance by " Calvin Kline. " That film sums up Hit and Runway: nice, funny, upbeat, and unthreatening.