GRAVESEND
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1997 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): **
Indie films are in. And the dream of every independent filmmaker is that, with just a piece of plastic, they can finance a picture that will eventually get backing from some major studio. Presenting at film festivals and trying to connect with key people in the film industry are fledgling filmmaker's equivalent of buying lottery tickets. As in most forms of gambling, the majority of the players don't win.
Twenty-two year old Salvatore Stabile hit it big. He placed a $5,000 bet on his film about his beat-up Brooklyn neighborhood. He hit the jackpot when he got financing from Oliver Stone to improve the picture and get it released. Stabile went on to hit it even bigger with a two picture deal from Steven Spielberg's Dreamworks studio. And you thought Horatio Alger stories were dead. I've seen many directors more deserving that Stabile, whose first film feels too much like a cheap Quentin Tarantino knockoff, but I'm happy to see someone who does show talent getting a chance at fame and fortune. (Now, if budding film critics could just get such opportunities, ...)
GRAVESEND is a generally unknown area of Brooklyn where Stabile grew up. His insightful and touching voice-over makes the film special, and he speaks from the heart about life in Gravesend. If his writing of the rest of the movie were of the same caliber, the film would have been worth recommending. As it, the picture demonstrates his promise as a writer and director but little more.
The setup for the story is that four aimless young men -- Zane (Tony Tucci), Ray (Michael Parducci), Chicken (Tom Malloy) and Mikey (Thomas Brandise) -- meet regularly in the basement of Ray's house to goof off, argue and smoke dope. Ray lives alone with his brother Mark since their parents died a few years back. (Each of the men has a dysfunctional or dead family. We learn of the men's backgrounds through grainy black-and-white flashbacks while Stabile narrates a summary of their troubled history.)
Their standard routine has Mark coming down and yelling at them, first to be quiet and then to go home. One night, Zane fires an "unloaded" gun at Mark and shatters his usual ritual. The rest of the movie has them driving around town with Mark's dead body in the trunk as they try to figure out how to get rid of it. The surprisingly professional acting is marred by the script's lack of focus and direction. In between black comedy routines, the actors wile away their time wrestling and making small talk as if they are trying to run out the clock so that can declare their first movie finished.
The film does have a few memorable lines. Stabile's percipient reflection on Zane, the show's hothead, is one of the best. "Zane wasn't well liked," he remarks. "We were his friends, and we didn't like him."
In another good scene, they negotiate with a local junkie named Jo-Jo, played like a Mafioso reject by Macky Aquilino, to bury Mark's body. The best they can do is get Jo-Jo to bury it for $500 and a thumb -- Mark's thumb, which upsets Ray's sense of propriety.
I wish Stabile luck with his opportunity to make his fortune since GRAVESEND, even at sloppiest, shows promise.
GRAVESEND runs just 1:25. It is rated R for violence, profanity, and pot and cocaine usage. Teenagers should go only if they are both older and mature. I can't recommend the film, but I do think it is worth **.
**** = A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = Totally and painfully unbearable picture.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: September 22, 1997
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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