User reviews

Clearly the majority of the people that rated this are friends of the cast. The movie is sorta funny but odd and not very true to life, got board half way through.

This stinks worse than the dog crap the husband kept stepping in...been a lot of strip clubs since the 70's and never saw one this tame before....usually you can't see through the smoke and when you can its wall to wall naked women of all sorts...it would have worked better with an actress that could actually strip and do table dances...perhaps you might see criminal types hanging around but not conducting business on the premises...disguises like trench coats, shades and rumpled hats went out of style with the 30's hard boiled detective movies....i don't the writers of this script have a clue

This is one of the worst movies I have ever watched. I'm 53 years old, watched movies since I was a child, and never have I seen a 'professionally' made film that was as badly written and filmed as this one.

The plot is ridiculous. The dialog could have been better written by a Grade 3 class, in the dark, with screwdrivers instead of pencils. Seriously, it's that bad. I actually encourage those brave enough (and who have literally nothing better to do) to watch and get a laugh. Aside from this, this movie is pointless. Giving it a 1 is generous.

The only person with any acting skill is the lead actress, and I feel bad for her that she had to suffer through the scenes in making this film. She deserves a chance with better material and better production values.

This film would appeal to a wide audience. It has some adult content, but it is not vulgar. It has scenes in a strip club but there is no full nudity and the strippers scenes are "respectable". What I mean is, if a person wanted real bump and grind, down and dirty strippers, they wouldn't find them in this film. We see Sally, the wife trapped in a boring wholesome life, transform from a clean-cut young wife into a bold angry wife who wants to get even with her cheating husband. The drama is tongue-in-cheek, much to laugh at, and an interesting story line to maintain interest. The cast of likable characters was well chosen. As one of the earlier reviewers stated, this film is similar to "I Love You To Death" with Kevin Kline and Tracy Ullman a 1990 film that I loved.

I have acted in some films that turned out to be disappointing when I saw them on the big screen. When I was offered the role of Cisco in Club Utopia I was immediately interested because I had already had a very pleasant experience working with the Director/Producer, Frank Caruso. When I read the script, I was doubly interested, and when we discussed the project and I learned who would be in the cast and crew, I was confident that I was signing on to a quality film project. In the end, when I viewed the final version of the film, I was very, very happy. We had made a film that I can be proud to recommend to anyone who enjoys a good, fun, fast moving comedy.

Entertaining likable characters with a fun story. Never lags and no lousy performances make me a happy guy. go see it. Hope somebody picks it up.Frank Caruso has spent many years in the biz and this is a wonderful film.The three main leads are strong, Frank is comedic, the Star female lead is adorable, and her husband is a great actor and should go on to do many films as a lead. Great look and will be an amazing bad guy. Great Camera work as usual for Jay. keep up the great work. Hope the new series is a go. It goes to show that if you never give up and work with the same people year after year film after film eventually you win and this is a winner

The opening scene was so hilarious I was immediately hooked and drawn into the story. This film has it all! Great acting, unique characters, and a delightful fast-moving story that will keep you entertained. Sally's fantasies were hysterical. Her husband's reactions to them made me laugh until I cried. I saw the actor who played Alex in a drama. He is an amazing and versatile performer. I enjoy films where the writer also stars. Frank Caruso was perfect as Sabatini. The role was made for him. He and his partner in crime, Mr. Cologne, kept me laughing. I wish I could say more without spoiling. If you enjoy belly laughs and side-splitting comedies, this film is for you!

Very funny and entertaining. If the Coen Brothers made a cross between an Elmore Leonard novel and Louis Bunuel's Belle de Jour, this would be it.

Club Utopia has a sort-of similar story to the Bunuel film, with all the crime and comedy of Elmore Leonard, and the quirk of the Coens.

Refreshing to see a low-budget Canadian indie film that isn't a vampire/zombie/slasher horror film or feature-length comedy sketch. Those genres are SO overdone in the Canadian low-budget indie scene, and have become extremely tired and cliché.

Club Utopia could definitely find a substantial audience in both Canada and the US.

Careful, control freak husbands!!! Those of you who believe their wives should be locked up at home washing dishes,cleaning house and away from the prying eyes of other men:there is a terrible lesson for you in Frank Caruso's new,laugh out loud comedy " CLUB UTOPIA" which highlights the pitfalls of century old chauvinistic thought and gives the heroine more than a foot forward on the road to ultimate female emancipation. And you thought women getting the vote was a problem !!

Sally Enitlov ( Elise Miller ) is married to Alex ( Srdjan Nikolic),a successful multi-millionaire securities expert who is utterly self-absorbed,indulgent,insensitive and philandering. The problem for Alex is he talks about his sexual conquests in his sleep......right down to naming names ( his secretary for example ). He believes Sally has "everything any woman could want" and ignores her sexual advances and attempts to heal the marriage ( frankly, he's too tired when he gets home from his " business " meetings at midnight ). A prisoner in the house,Sally watches hypnotic talk shows which show real women asserting themselves and wanting a life of their own.Sally mentions wanting a job but Alex is scornful and demeaning. When Alex has yet another one of his sexually charged dreams,the neglected Sally makes the wise decision to get a job and the fun begins.

She investigates a sex shop advertising for help and along the way ,buys some racy clothing to attract Alex;when she gets home ,she puts on what she thinks is a racy show and Alex is bored.She then applies for a waitressing job in what she discovers is a strip club.Alex notices what he calls "odd behaviour" and decides to hire a private investigator,Richard Sabatini(Frank Caruso himself),to watch his wife's patterns.Constantly rebuffed and humiliated,sally decides to take a job as a dancer in the club after all.What ensues is one hilarious adventure after another.

Gaining confidence on the job,and unbeknownst to her husband,Sally actually strikes up a friendship with Sabatini and his group of hopeless,hapless,misfit friends.Alex eventually arrives at Club Utopia to discover his wife IS a dancer,and that she is not,in fact,the club book keeper his private investigator told him she was.Sally ultimately goes from fantasizing various hilarious scenarios of killing her husband to actually hiring Sabatini,her new found double-dipping accomplice,to do it:"I'll never be a whole woman while he's alive.I'll pay $25,000.00 and 20% of the life insurance when he's dead ".What follows are several scenes which border on the funniest ever seen in any movie anywhere.The three Stooges could learn something from Sally and her crazy team's efforts!

Veteran writer,director and producer Frank Caruso is a tour de force in terms of creating high comedy,but in the stylized vein of bumbling idiot characters who fall over themselves one minute and reinvent themselves in the next,reminiscent of the dottering,annoying detective genre of "Colombo" ,faltering and apparently stumbling ,but crazy like a fox inside.His casting is superb including the veteran and enormously talented Brett Halsey ( Cisco),the comic Shiraz Tayyeb(" Mr. Cologne")and newcomer Heather O'Donnel( Tamara) who brings a sensitive turn to a lonely club dancer who befriends Sally.This is an original script by Mr. Caruso who brings together a worthy cast and an experienced crew,in yet another example of fine Canadian cinema. Caruso is a determined,talented artist who, with several first rate films,has beaten a persistent drum to illuminate the risky world of film making in what is still a fledgling Canadian Film landscape,where other directors/producers,less visionary,have withered on the vine long ago. He is the little engine that absolutely could.

I greatly anticipate what he has next up his sleeve.

Blair Duckworth

Club Utopia had me laughing right from the start! It was so refreshing to watch a very original Canadian feature with a talented cast that gave great performances! This is a film that men & women will be able to relate to on many levels! Frank Caruso not only wrote the screenplay but produces, directs & stars in Club Utopia which is another indication of his ability to do it all and produce greatness! Bizarre, hysterical, crazy and 100% entertaining! As a Canadian actor I would be honoured to have the opportunity to work in a Frank Caruso production. My hope is that this film receives the critical acclaim it deserves. Congrats to the cast and crew of Club Utopia!

Club Utopia, destined for Cult status

Alex Enitlov (Srdjan Nikolic) and his wife Sally (Elise Muller) appear to be living the American dream. A luxury home in the suburbs, a job as a Stock Trader, and the outward appearance of success. Alas, there is trouble in paradise. Alex is having an affair with his secretary, and ignoring his marriage in the pursuit of wealth. Add to that a foot fetish, a neurotic neighbour, and the belief that his wife is trying to kill him, and you have the ingredients for a cinematic disaster. When his wife, Sally, decides to return to work, Alex is desperate to know what she is up to, and ensure his infidelity is kept under wraps. He enlists a seedy Private Detective to sort things out.

Private Detective Sabatini (Frank Caruso), a poor man's Sam Spade, with the aid of his cousin (Shiraz Tayyed) get on Sally's trail that leads to the doorstep of Club Utopia. Club Utopia is a strip joint owned by Sisco (Brett Halsey) an establishment that has seen better days. Sally soon realizes there is more money in stripping than in serving tables, and takes the job. Owner, Sisco, is a man with a love/hate relationship with women. The strippers make him money which he promptly hands over to his ex-wives. Sabatini collides with all of these characters and hilarity ensues. A story filled with a bazaar murder plot, unlikely co- conspiraters, sex, lies and blackmail. There is never a dull moment at Club Utopia.

Caruso is no stranger to stage and screen as this is his eighth film and he has had numerous, successful stage productions. In this reporter's opinion, Club Utopia is Frank Caruso's best work. He manages to capture the mood and pitfalls of modern day relationships in this film- noir comedy.

It is great to see Brett Halsey on the big screen again. Movie buffs will remember him from Universal Studio movies The Atomic Sub, The Return of the Fly, and many more. Brett also created the role of John Abbott in the long-running television series "The Young and The Restless". Special mention goes out to Caruso as Sabatini, his dead-from-the-neck- up cousin, Mr. Cologne, and actress Heather O'Donnell who makes the most of her time, and jumps off the screen from a group of one-dimensional strippers.

A film very much in the vein of Kevin Kline's "I Love You To Death". Club Utopia is destined to become a cult classic and one you have to see more than once to catch all the comedy nuances.

Movie Review by John P. Stoddart, Movie Reviewer and Film Historian

At first sight with the opening scene one might get second thoughts for the entire film as a comedy, but I think it introduces the characters, themes, and storyline perfectly! As the base you have your basic housewife homebound, lonely and bored with neurotic tendencies, and a cheating, impulsive husband who not only speaks English & curses in Russian, yet has an uncontrollable foot fetish. Sally, (neurotic wife), wants a job, something to do with her life and meet people. Alex, her husband, completely forbids Sally's desire for independence however wants the best of both worlds-have his cake and eat it too. In this chaotic dilemma Sally finds a job at strip joint Club Utopia and meets some very interesting people who all have their own stories. A tired money-hungry club owner, a clever undercover spy, along with many more witty characters, Club Utopia is purely entertaining, well written and directed! I LOVED IT!

Lots of fun, well developed characters and identifiable Toronto locations. Frank always assembles a great cast and does the Toronto indie film scene proud. It's great seeing accomplishes performers alongside new local talent, and Frank and his family. Great music in this film from really talented local composers and musicians. I saw the rough version of this film a while ago and am really impressed with the polished final film. Everybody in the theatre was ecstatic. I have seen Frank's earlier films, and I was in 'Love letters trilogy', and this is the best and most professional work he has done. Kudos to Frank and the production company !

You know you are headed for a wild ride when the very first scene in Club Utopia gets an audience laughing out loud in complete unison! The movie continues to take everyone on a zany ride into the world of a controlling, unfaithful husband and his bored "I just want to be loved" stay at home housewife. Non stop craziness ensues with stand out performances by the cast as plot after plot unfolds in bizarre, hysterical fashion! What transpires in the film's 108 minutes is pure comic genius on the part of Writer/Director/Producer/Actor Frank Caruso.

A great comedy romp that needs to be seen by everyone!

Off the top, I have to say that I really enjoyed Club Utopia. It did something that a lot of bigger budget movies fail to do - it amused and entertained me and kept my attention.

I thought the acting was good, and I loved the soundtrack, all provided by local GTA musicians.

The story involves a selfish, unlikeable, womanizing, control freak of a man Alex Enitlov(Srdjan Nikolic), with a beautiful but bored-silly wife Sally Enitlov.(Ellen Muller) A hate filled neighbour, Charlie, (Mike Oshust) a sleazy over sexed secretary,Gretchen(Inna Ivanova ) a hopelessly inept private detective Richard Sabatini (Frank Caruso), along with his complete wack job of a cousin.(Shiraz Tayyeb, another character is Sisco ( Brett Halsey), a strip club owner.

The Alex character makes it clear what sort of person he is from the first time we lay yes on him, and we immediately sympathize with his wife. Each time some little annoyance arrives at his doorstep, we smirk, and whenever his wife or anyone else gets one up on him, we love it.

One of the scenes I enjoyed the most is where Alex is trying to retrieve the morning paper under the watchful eye of his neighbour, Charlie, who is out hosing his driveway, and manages to soak Alex and the paper. Alex does not take this in good part and retreats into the house shrieking imprecations in Russian.

Alex has an unfortunate habit of recalling his infidelities in his dreams, in vivid detail. His subsequent sleep-talking makes Sally both suspicious and resentful, and provides us with side splitting laughter. Another annoying habit Alex has is completely ignoring Sally which leads to her brooding angrily, which in turn leads to her having elaborate dreams of avenging herself on Alex, and these are hilariously captured.

Even though he's carrying on a torrid affair with his secretary Gretchen, Alex is suspicious of Sally. Hethinks Sally is on to him and that she herself may be having an affair. He hires Sabatini, the inept private detective, to tail her. The scenes between Alex and Sabatini in Sabatinis' warehouse-office are hilarious. You know that if Sabatini wasn't broke, he would not take Alex on as a client.

Sally meantime has decided to get a job, and ends up through a series of mishaps, becoming an exotic dancer. The scenes with her interviewing for the job are really well done. I loved when she first meets the strip club owner, Sisco (Brett Halsey)and one of his strippers. Great scene.

The resulting chaos from Alexs' infidelity, Sally's annoyance with him, Sally's emergence from unassuming housewife to scintillating exotic dancer and the interactions with all the other characters makes a very entertaining romp.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film. The acting was wonderful, I would have a hard time picking out my favourite actor. Producer, Director, Writer and Actor Frank Caruso did a magnificent job in all areas. The locations worked extremely well and the lighting was well thought out and executed. The humour that you get to enjoy in this movie is so good, from the foot fetish to the premise to the facial expressions of the actors; it all comes together to make a great comedy that I highly recommend. There is suspense peppered throughout the movie and comedy pops up sometimes when you least expect it. I had to laugh out loud while watching it, the lines were that funny. Go see the movie, it is time well spent.

The movie had very good suspense and plenty of humour.The actors played their roles very well.The ladies were very appealing and made it real.

The movie offered a different approach to romantic comedies and drama.The scenes were filmed in good locations.There was plenty of unpredictable moments that left the audience in suspense.The lead actors were believable and passionate about their roles.The other actors provided good support also. The entertainers at the club were identical to the ones we see today.The atmosphere,attitude and dancing showed how the profession still plays a role for some in society and how outsiders can become curious with a long standing profession.It gives a bored person something to think about.

A quirky, sexy comedy with plot twists and hilarity. Elise Muller graces the screen as Sally Enitlov, bored with her stoic, yet paranoid, cheating husband Alex (Srdjan Nikolic) combined with with a quirky private detective played by Frank A. Caruso who also produced, wrote and directed the film.

There's slapstick humour, puns, hits and strait up jokes. From quirky characters like Mr. Cologne (Shiraz Tayyeb) to the sexy Tamara (Heather O'Donnell) and a gracious performance by veteran actor Brett Halsey as Sisco.

Non-stop humour!

Check it out!

I worked in Toronto as a DJ in the strip club business in the 90's and I always felt every movie I saw about the industry really didn't represent it well. Conversations always seemed stilted or forced, and the inaccuracies about the business and how it operates was always distracting from the story for me. Frank Caruso has changed all that and totally hit the mark in his movie Club Utopia. Frank has taken the time to research his project and it shows. He has the best representation of the inner workings of a strip club as well as the language, the color, the humour as well as a little bit of romance too. I think my favorite character is Cisco the club's manager. He's an amalgam of two or three people I've probably worked with and I found him the funniest in the movie perhaps because he struck a chord in me and because of the wonderful performance by Brett Halsey. I loved the story and the characters and look forward to watching it again. As much happens outside the club as in and I think the characters are believable and transition well from setting to setting. Fun movie with lots of laughs and a good story. In many ways a story that unfolds everyday in the strip club industry. For every club there is a Sally Enitlov. Frank Caruso's movie Club Utopia represents her and the business well. I look forward to Frank's next project.

Wasn't expecting much but it turned out to be one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time. The story is good and the actors are better. I know I laughed at least 20 different times. Thank you Amazon for streaming this movie. I enjoyed it from beginning to end, especially the scene where the guy was eating chicken under the bed. That was hilarious with a capital H.

Absolutely loved this movie! Club Utopia contains plenty of comedy that kept me laughing from start to finish, but didn't make me overlook the entire message of the film. It's very reassuring to know that Canadian films such as Caruso's give the entire Canadian Film scene the great reputation they deserve. The great acting and cinematography make it very clear the entire crew had a lot of passion for this project. Frank Caruso deserves a standing ovation for dedicating so much time through writing, starring, directing,and producing this brilliant film for us to enjoy. Bravo, keep up the great work!

Overall- a must see!

Sally Enitlav is an under-appreciated housewife looking to at least get a part-time job while her husband Alex is preoccupied with stock trading and talking in his sleep about someone from the office named Gretchen DeSanto. Some of his heavy dreams end with screams that wake him up and Sally believes it is guilt. Sally applies for what she expects to be a waitress position at Club Utopia only to discover what they want is a dancer. Embarrassed as she is, she goes through the motions of getting a burlesque license and learning that a client paying for a table dance actually expects her to take off some clothes. Alex begins to sense that Sally is being secretive about something, so he hires a private detective Richard Sabatini to follow her with help from a door to door perfume salesman calling himself Mr. Cologne. Involving Sabatini puts his own life in the cross-hairs of cameras and exposes him to blackmail over the relationship with Gretchen. Events escalate until Sally is ready to team up with Sabatini and turn the tables on Alex and putting his life comically in danger as his hidden assassin may have to reach around from hiding under a bed and attempt to jab a hypodermic into a buttock that is moving around while he entertains a female guest. Shiraz Tayyeb, the new actor playing Cologne, has a natural presence, and the club DJ Trevor Annon seems right at home. Brett Halsey has a grounded and understated authority with inherent humour as the owner of Club Utopia. Full disclosure: I was involved with the script for a couple of years in the Nineties and a few bits I was responsible for maybe didn't belong by time this movie was made. For example, a Basic Instinct murder parody at the start made sense and was timely in 1992 the year Basic Instinct was released. Also, Alex asks the detective why he has a fan running on a cold day and he says, "Atmosphere." That made sense if it was a ceiling fan I indicated and if the office evoked Phillip Marlow and Sam Spade era detectives, but the production had instead gone for a small desk fan. Those kinds of issues might only be a distraction for me and might not throw the average viewer. As Alex, Srdjan Nikolic's Russian accent removes any subtlety of delivery but seems suited for the agitated state of the character for much of the movie. Sally as played by Elsie Muller is at her most believable when angry or fully crazy. She has a typical movie star look and an edge that makes the more vulnerable aspects of the character seem less accessible to her. Frank A. Caruso directing himself as Sabatini has a few moments where he seems to aware of the humour, and the performance is much better when he has to be either the improbable voice of sanity or conning his own cousin Mr. Cologne into doing the dirty work of their caper.