Only in his early 20s, Zephyr Benson makes a remarkably assured debut as writer, director and star of “Straight Outta Tompkins,” his tongue-in-cheek title for his past as a middle-class drug dealer in lower Manhattan.
As Gene Silverstein, he narrates the story of a teen’s transition from promising private-school baseball star to heroin-addled loser.
Some of the trappings will be familiar — alienates longtime best friend? Check.
Sees drug kingpin as father figure? Check — but Benson’s wry storytelling has the ring of authenticity, and he surrounds himself with a talented cast — especially Aaron Costa Ganis as Cruz, the mercurial dealer who takes Gene in when he’s abandoned by his family.
Benson also writes insightfully about New York’s flawed war on drugs, as in a scene in which two teens outside a bodega are cuffed by cops: “It’s sad — most people see these kids getting arrested and they think, These are the drug dealers in our community,” says Benson’s narrator. “Little do they know, the kid who’s walking out right behind them, the kind who’s always holding the door open for everyone, who just spent $2,000 on a new jacket — that’s me, and that’s who they really want.”