Local Boys Make Good

by William Speruzzi on 05/18/2007

There’s a line in the play Hurlyburly, David Rabe‘s scolding indictment of Hollywood’s penchant for the vacuous:

They got all these bullshit stories they want to fill the air with, they want to give them some sense of reality, some fucking air of authenticity, don’t they? So they take some guy like you and stick him around the set to make the whole load of shit look real. Don’t you know that? You’re a prop.

Director Michael Corrente’s sentiments about why it took two years to get his film Brooklyn Rules to the screen hit a similar note:

It’s shot anamorphic by a cinematographer who’s the president of the ASC…you’ve got an amazing cast. You’ve got one of the better writers out there writing right now. And it’s a great story, but they will release piece of shit after piece of shit onto 1,000 to 2,000 screens. It’s disgusting. It’s sad…homogenized, rinsed-off, bullshit, formulaic fucking movies.

Well, you got me hooked. No, Corrente is not from New York but screenwriter and Sopranos staffer Terrence Winter is. The Reeler gives a fair and insightful review of what sounds like a solid coming-of-age in the borough crime drama that finally opens today in NYC.

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And in more “you can’t keep me down” news, Queens born James Gray comes out of the gate at Cannes [update 5.19: Columbia pick up at Cannes] with his new NYC crime thriller We Own The Night. I’m a big fan of Little Odessa and it’s great to hear he’s developing new work. Really looking forward to Alphabet City. From Gray:

I’m just not willing to give up on myself. If I’m going to fail, then I want to fail to the limits of my talent.

Gotta love it. Who here wants to go out and make a movie!?! Whose with me!?!

There are 2 comments in this article:

  1. 05/18/2007christopher says:

    well, hyperbole goes both ways i guess. i mean really, how can any film where the term “coming-of-age” applies not be somewhat formulaic? ugh. that description alone is a guaranteed turn off for me. and what does shooting anamorphic have to do with anything?

    none of which negates the fact that they definitely do keep putting out crap, or that gray’s is a great quote; failing to the limits of your talent. excellent.

  2. 05/19/2007William Speruzzi says:

    It does go both ways. I get a little weary with a lot of “neighborhood” stories because they tend to lean on the clichés of what has come before i.e. Scorsese — no one is going to out-Scorsese Scorsese. Something like A Bronx Tale was unique enough in its own right to make it an entertaining film but there are a lot of really weak films that get lost in the shuffle because they deal with similar subject matter in a very stale, uninspired way.

    The thing that made me raise my head and notice Brooklyn Rules was Terrence Winter’s involvement in writing the screenplay. He has been instrumental in making the writing on The Sopranos really strong. Scott Caan and Alec Baldwin are both really solid actors in their own right too.

    I’m not sure how Corrente’s film is because I haven’t seen it, I did relate to the sentiment though.

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