News

New Zealand actress Melanie Lynskey made her breakthrough into movies and cinema history with Peter Jackson's true-crime drama Heavenly Creatures back in 1994. Since then, she's become an actress utterly beloved by critics and indie movie fans for her layered performances in films like Win Win, Away We Go, Up In the Air and Hello I Must Be Going. In the new-to-iTunes comedy Putzel, Lynskey learned to embrace her inner shiksa to play Sally, the spunky center of this raunchy rom-com's tricky love triangle. Putzel stars Jack Carpenter (I Love Beth Cooper) as Walter "Putzel" Himmelstein, a neurotic New York Jew who has become so engrained into the daily operations of his family's Upper West Side bagels and lox shop that the very thought of stepping outside the neighborhood fills him with crippling anxiety. He attempts to buckle down and prove to his uncle Sid (John Pankow) that he's ready...

Putzel is a film about the ties that bind, or in the case of title character Walter "Putzel" Himmelstein (Jack Carpenter), the ties that restrict, restrain and suffocate. Walter was born and raised in the Upper West Side of Manhattan and it's where he spends every waking moment. His grandfather was the founder and longtime owner of Himmelstein’s House of Lox, which is now in the hands of Putzel's uncle Sid (John Pankow). Putzel grew up around the salmon and bagels and expects to one day take over the family business. And while his heart isn't really in it, it's the only thing he knows and the one thing he sees as saving him from having to find work in a shoe store.