Friday, May 18, 2007

Movie: "Brooklyn Rules"

The ANNOTICO Report

 

Set in Brooklyn circa 1985 against the backdrop of John Gotti's rise to power, the film revolves around three lifelong friends whose different ambitions threaten to shake their enduring bond.

 

Michael, the narrator, is a lovable charmer with the soul of a con man who successfully scams his way into the pre-law program at Columbia University.

 

In contrast to Michael's desire to leave the Brooklyn streets behind, his close friend Carmine, a handsome lady-killer enamored of the Mafia lifestyle, wants nothing more than to stay there.

 

And rounding out the trio is Bobby, an endearing cheapskate who longs for a simple life of working at the Post Office and settling down with his fiancie.

 

While at Columbia, Michael falls for a beautiful young student named Ellen, a society girl whom he initially wins over with his preppy schoolboy cover. As their relationship blossoms, leaving the streets behind seems increasingly possible, but when Carmine catches the eye of Caesar, a feared mobster who controls their Brooklyn neighborhood, Michael and Bobby are drawn into that world despite their reluctance to get involved.

 

Brooklyn Rules

 

Review

411 Mania.com
By Bryan Kristopowitz

05.18.2007

Who wants to stay in "da neybahuud?"


"Brooklyn Rules," directed by Michael Corrente, is a movie about the choices young men make when it comes time for them to decide what they want to be. It's a story about what young men can do "when they grow up." Starring Freddie Prinze, Jr., Scott Caan, and Jerry Ferrrara as Michael, Carmine, and Bobby, three lifelong friends living in a working class, "mobbed up" neighborhood in Brooklyn in 1985, we see three friends as they go about planning the rest of their lives. At the beginning it tries to pass itself off as a "mob" movie, a story that's going to be solely about the mob and how it runs the lives of everyone in the neighborhood. But Corrente and screenwriter Terence Winter make the great decision to have the mob mostly in the background, something that everyone knows about, has to deal with, but it's not all about the opening scene in "The Godfather." It's not about a bunch of preening, expensive suit wearing stereotypes grunting about respect and honor, it's about the "regular" people those preening criminal scumbags lord over.

Michael is in college, studying hard with the hope to go on to law school. Michael is somewhat insecure about his social standing at college. When we see Michael interact with his best friends he's loose, profane, funny. When Michael is at college we see a slightly different version of his personality. He's more uptight, both trying to fit in to what he perceives to be an extremely different environment from home and on guard against what he sees as slights against him and where he's from. He thinks people don't understand him and because they don't understand him and are making judgeme nts against him he's not going to trust them. But Michael knows where he wants to go. Michael wants to get out of the "naybahood."

Carmine is Michael's opposite in that he wants a level of respect from people, he wants to gain something more than he has, but he wants to do it right there at home. Carmine has no interest in leaving the neighborhood. In fact, Carmine wants to become part of the criminal "shadow world" that basically "runs" the neighborhood (you know, the mob). His mentor is Caesar (Alec Baldwin), the neighborhood mob leader that Carmine, Michael, and Bobby know from way back in 1974 when they all saw him beating the crap out of someone.

And then there's Bobby. Often called "slow" by his friends, extremely religious, and considered a notorious cheapskate (he's lethally frugal. He argues the price on everything), Bobby is the member of the group that isn't interested in changi ng much of anything. Bobby's life goals are to marry his best gal, get a job at the Post Office (it's a federal job, with a union, as he says. Even if you screw up they can't fire you), and settle down.

Now, after seeing the mob victim in the car at the beach in 1974 and Caesar in the club the three friends go to at the start of the 1985 part of the story, the actual mob hooha stays pretty much with Carmine. Since Carmine is all about joining that world, when he's alone that's all we see. But when the story focusses on Michael and to a lesser extent Bobby (Prinze Jr's whole college life thing takes up the bulk of the story) the mob is in the background. Even when we see Caesar enter Michael's place of employment (a local butcher shop) to cut off a guy's ear with a saw for trying to get in on the local garbage action it's not that big of a deal. It certainly stays with Michael, it affects him, but it doesn't consume him. There's a fight at the local diner involving Mi chael, Carmine, and a "different crew" mob guy that doesn't consume him. And there's a "conference" that Michael is forced to go to with Caesar that has all of the markings of "these mob guys scarred me for life" but it doesn't.

 

But then there's a moment in the last third of the movie, a moment that almost forces Michael to change his priorities and abandon his lofty law school goals, a moment that should really be more pivotal than it is. It's meant to be Michael's final choice on life, that potential "scarred" moment, but it doesn't come off as well as it probably should. Because the flick's direction is somewhat lesiurely (it's not slow. It takes its time) it definitely would have been too jarring to suddenly amp up the story's tempo and delve into a kind of a low budget "Con Air" ending where the hooha starts flying. But that last third is missing something. The story progression makes sense, it "works," it just doesn't work enough.

I've never been a fan of Freddie Prinze, Jr. With the exception of "She's All That" and the "Scooby Doo" movies, I've alw ays found him to be rather boring. He's a handsome guy, he gets the gals going, but beyond that... eh. And when the flick starts out and we see Prinze, Jr. doing the whole profane, tough guy routine with his friends you think "We're going to have to listen to two hours of this?" But then he starts growing on you, you see how he changes the character's speech patterns when he's at college and when he's at home with his friends.

 

His girlfriend Ellen (Mena Suvari) notices it for us if we're not "in" on it. There are times when it seems as though Prinze, Jr. is having trouble with keeping his accent, and if it really is a mistake on his part it's a mistake that works. You really believe that Freddie Prinze, Jr. is Michael Turner. It's brilliant. Suvari's Ellen, though, is a problem for Prinze, Jr. They have no chemistry, and Suvari, while doing the pretty eye thing she's known for, is just boring. It's probably the hair. Yeah, it may be the style of the times, but it's distracting. And why wasn't there a small nude scene for her? I don't want to sound like a flaming heterosexual pig here, but with the casual feel of the movie, you'd think there would have been a small, insignificant boob shot or something. Why not?

Scott Caan does a pretty good job as Carmine. Carm ine is a tough guy on the way up in the "organization" so he's not required to do much beyond acting like a tough guy. Being related to Jimmy Caan probably helps in that regard. Jerry Ferrara is excellent as Bobby, simply because he's so unassuming. He's so normal. You end up feeling for him the most. And his interaction with his family is hilarious. It's sort of like a "real life" sitcom. Corrente and Winter probably could have made a solid movie just about them.

And then there's Alec Baldwin. Baldwin does his usual great job as tough mob guy Caesar (his introduction in 1974 is outstanding. It's a cliche, sure, but Baldwin makes it feel fresh). Had this movie solely been about the mob we would have seen him all over the place. I'm sure Baldwin would have made it work if the makers went down that road, but his few scenes work simply because they are so few. He isn't going to get any awards here, but you will remember him. And his saw skills are top notch.

So what do we have here? A butt kicking, 1974, cigarettes, a gun, a cute puppy, 1985, John Gotti, clubbing, gratuitous praying, car sex, lemonade, mid-term cheating, a butcher shop, gambling, a birthday party in Manhattan, someone says "irregardless," a red shirt, gratuitous "Back to the Future" references, ear slicing, ketchup on a hot dog, tennis shoes, a blue margarita, a tractor trailer heist gone awry, a mob funeral, dubious Frank Sinatra tickets, glass to the face, scalp ripping, chair to the head, someone calls a gun a "roscoe," a sit down at a bowling alley, an all night jewelry store haggling session, studying, bed sex, steak house mob killing story on TV, a "CD-record album scam" speech, a dog funeral, hole digging, and a really weird and creepy end credits sequence.

The lines: "Is your mother Italian?," "These uniforms suck. They should let us wear bell bottoms," "Holy fuck!," "What are you, fucking blind?," "We've been driving around for twenty minutes you cheap cocksucker," "You look like the Italian version of Fred McMurray," "You're praying to a virgin to get us laid?," "What the fuck are you looking at? Fucking douchebag," "Good with a bat? That's a good skill to have," "Fuck you. You're half a fag anyway," "Will you hurry up and cum. I'm starving here," "That was fucking genius, kid," "Irregardless," "So the mafia is hiring bullfighters now?," "So how about you kiss my fucking asshole," "Speaking of fucking are we going out tomorrow night?," "Do I look like I play fucking tennis?," "You fucking look at me when I'm talking to you," "Hey, did you ever find that guy's ear?," "Look at the spanish chick," "You're still in neutral, Mr. Andretti," and "Don't you fucking die."

Give "Brooklyn Rules" a shot. It's worth a look.     See it.

 

Freddie Prinze, Jr.- Michael Turner
Scott Caan- Carmine Mancuso
Jerry Ferrara- Bobby Canzoneri
Mena Suvari- Ellen
Alec Baldwin- Caesar
Monica Keena- Amy
Christian Maelon- Gino
Directed by Michael Corrente
Screenplay by Terence Winter
Distributed by City Lights Pictures
Rated R for violence, pervasive language and some sexual content
Runtime- 99 minutes

 

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