The Many Saints of Newark
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As for the teen Tony, the heart of the film should be his tragic journey from innocent kid to the dark side, but the scenes that deal with this are slight and underwritten. The choice of actor is a big reason why the film doesn’t work. As played by the late James Gandolfini’s son Michael, young Tony seems doughy, passive, and dull rather than potentially formidable and wily. He doesn’t imbue the character with the requisite ferocity even in a scene in which he shows a flash of his future bad temper in beating up a fellow teen. It’s obvious why young Gandolfini got the part, and it’s not because of his screen presence, which is almost nil. Any number of intense young actors would have loved to have played this role. Instead, Chase chose a regrettable act of stunt casting. You pick actors based on talent, not genealogy.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@george-k said in The Many Saints of Newark:
The Sopranos never grabbed me, and I seldom watched it. I had the sense that others found it interesting for some of the same reasons they watched Jersey Shore. People told themselves, “This is prestige TV,” while they gawked at the strip-joint scenes and giggled at the mobsters’ Borscht Belt malapropisms.
What an odd choice of reviewer.
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@horace said in The Many Saints of Newark:
What an odd choice of reviewer.
Yeah, that's why I thought it worth posting.
Here's a guy who's not "invested" in the story, and basically DGAF about the Sopranos.
Why bother?
And yeah, I'll watch it.
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I thought this thread was about Eli Apple, traded from the NJ Giants to the New Orleans Football Team...
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“I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.” ~Winston S. Churchill
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@mik said in The Many Saints of Newark:
the story was not compelling in any other way.
Yup, and with too many side-stories.
What was the point of the upcoming rival gang that killed what's-his-name? Just a distraction.
What was the point of what's-his-name's wife having an affair? Just a distraction.
This was a story that could have been told in a one hour TV special.
2 ½ stars.
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What a train wreck.
Bad story line. If no one knew who these characters already became, no one would care who they were. And Christopher Moltosanti narrating posthumously was irritating -- and it never really explained how Tony Soprano became Tony Soprano.
Bad casting. The actors playing younger versions of known characters were generally bad. Livia Soprano seemed like a Carmela figure, not a young Nancy Marchand. Perhaps that was intended, that Tony marries his mother, but it was annoying. The young Carmela was uninteresting. The young Paulie Walnuts was very flat and not at all intimidating, and the young Silvio Dante was a bad SNL impression. The young Junior was OK, and passable. The twin Ray Liotta roles was ridiculous.
Bad acting. The first Ray Liotta role was horrid acting. The second was better, but his all knowing, Buddha quoting prison guru character was weird. Michael Gandolfini was obviously only cast because of his dad.
Bad staging -- the pimp daddies down south wearing their fur coats and fedoras in the horse barn was also ridiculous.
$50MM budget? Wow.
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@ivorythumper said in The Many Saints of Newark:
Bad staging
I loved the sets and production design - all those cars and 1960s houses though. That was fun (even the avocado appliances).
But you're right about everything else. The whole thing was flat.
The young Junior was OK
I believe that was Corey Stoll. He played a compromised congressman in House of Cards, and had a major role in the 5th season of Billions (now there's a show that's a guilty pleasure!), taking the lead next year.
The young Carmela
Not uninteresting, not even there except for a minor scene.
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