Wayne Maugans

Johnny Suede (Brad Pitt) longs to be a teen-age idol like Ricky Nelson. He has a pair of black suede shoes, an impressive pompadour, a guitar, and some pals who will play backup for him. Yet he doesn't have much talent or drive.

While working on a documentary on his old neighborhood, a young film school graduate shifts the focus of his production onto the disappearance of a local resident and the strange characters who are conducting the search to find him.

The everyday struggles of people trying to bridge two cultures, as well as their attempt to find happiness in their new homeland. Tere (Cherrie Pie Picache), mid-forties and single, hosts a dinner for a friend visiting from Manila, Lorna. Invited are their New York City-based friends and former college classmates -- Mike (Christopher De Leon), a newspaper editor in his forties, Gerry (Ricky Davao), an advertising copywriter and closeted gay, and Marissa (Dina Bonnevie).