GRAVESEND
It has been many years since I rode through the Gravesend area on a street car. Not far from the famed oceanside playground of Coney Island, Gravesend was even then a miserable Brooklyn neighborhood. Today it is inhabited by poor Italians, their children without goals, everyone "hanging out." The film is a depiction of a hair-raising night in Gravesend when four friends, obviously losers, whose combined intelligence is less than that of an ant, find themselves with a dead body on their hands.
One of them, Zane (Tony Tucci), had been playing with a gun and as guns have been known to do it went off, killing the brother of Ray (Michael Parducci). What are they going to do? Along with friends Chicken (Tom Malloy) and Mikey (Thomas Brandise) they mull over their very limited options: Do they call the police and explain it was an accident or do they try to get rid of body.
Zuane, who fired the gun, is not about to take a chance on the police buying their accident alibi. Instead, he and the others try to enlist the aid of a drug dealer who is known to be able to dump bodies. That's JoJo the Junkie (Macky Aquilino in a beautiful performance). In addition to $500 he wants a thumb. (sic.) Before long the friends have to dispose of another body.
The story of how the film was made (on a rumored $5000) is as interesting as the movie itself. Salvatore Stabile, only 22, wrote and directed this tense, revealing film. Just about singlehandedly he set about visiting those in Hollywood who could get the movie produced. Luckily he hit on Oliver Stone and others who were impressed with "Sal's" crude, first film, gave him money to upgrade it and get it shown.
If this is not a 100% professional film, it certainly is a good start. DREAMWORKS SKG, Steven Spielberg's company, has tapped young Stabile to a 2-picture deal.
Directed by Salvatore Stabile.
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Copyright 1997 Ben Hoffman
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