THE UNDERWEAR MODEL

Justin Vitale is broke, freshly laid off from a marketing job, and picking up occasional work as an underwear model to cover his bills. Raised by Raffaele and Frieda in a loud, loyal Italian-American family — with brothers Jack (a criminal defense attorney with his own leverage among prosecutors in Suffolk and Manhattan, distinct from Raffaele's old mob ties) and Peter (secretly adopted as a child, though he doesn't know it) — Justin grew up absorbing his father's blunt code of payback: the punishment must fit the crime. The family's old ties to neighborhood figures Louie Columbini and his nephew Ernesto, quietly watching over Justin without his full awareness, run underneath the story as a safety net he doesn't know he has.

Desperate for money, Justin takes a job from Harper, a well-connected fixer, working corporate surveillance for a mysterious handler known only as "the Slithering Man." His first case — exposing an embezzling executive — goes smoothly. His next is bigger: investigate Eleanor Thorne, CEO of defense contractor Inovex, suspected of corruption tied to a shady equity partner named Edward Langhorne. Justin gets close to Eleanor to gain access, straining his relationship with his girlfriend Caroline and pulling him deeper into a double life his modeling career only makes riskier — he's supposed to be invisible, and instead he's a public face.

When Eleanor turns up dead, poisoned, Justin and his hacker partner Jesse dig deeper, uncovering Langhorne's financial motive and finding that the FBI — via agent Maya Vance — already has a file on Thorne's death that's being quietly buried. Justin's pursuit of Langhorne collides with his family's own crisis: Raffaele's confession that Peter was taken in as a child, and Caroline's ultimatum that Justin choose honesty over secrecy.

Justin confronts the Slithering Man at an abandoned wire factory, laying out the evidence connecting him to the murders. The Slithering Man taunts him ("Who raised you?") and hands over blackmail material before speeding off — triggering a car chase, trailed by Detective Malloy. It ends in a second, more dangerous confrontation on a subway platform, where the Slithering Man finally reveals himself: he's Edward Langhorne, and Justin was never a partner — he was the intended patsy, an "Oswald kid" being set up to take the fall. The fight turns violent; Ernesto, watching from the shadows, intervenes and pushes Langhorne into the path of an oncoming train, leaving him gravely injured. Days later, Justin visits his hospital bed for a final, unheard word.

With evidence in hand, Justin faces serious legal exposure of his own — illegal surveillance, breaking and entering, impersonating an officer — until Jack calls in years of favors to broker a deal: no jail time, in exchange for twenty-six months on Detective Malloy's financial crimes task force. Justin accepts, chastened but resolved, and starts building a more honest life with Caroline, considering law school.

The film closes back where it began: the family gathered for a holiday meal, jabbering, imperfect, and loyal — the same world that shaped Justin's sense of justice now welcoming him home changed by it.

Ray Manna is a New York native, screenwriter, adjunct professor at Yeshiva University, executive-level marketing strategist, and former industrial and corporate video director for Fortune 1000 organizations. His screenwriting is grounded in character-driven storytelling that explores power, justice, identity, aspiration, redemption and moral ambiguity.

His first screenplay, "The Republican", was an early foundational project exploring the leveraged relationship between former President Nixon and his White House Chief of Staff, Bob Haldeman. He is currently writing his third feature-length screenplay about a working-class Bronx family struggling to leave the city for a better life.

"The Underwear Model" is the official selection & nominee of the following contests:
New York Independent Art Film Fest
Bergen International Film Festival of NJ
Chicago Indie Film Awards