Directed By Ray Romano

Starring – Ray Romano, Laurie Metcalf, Jennifer Esposito

The Plot – Leo (Romano) and Angela (Metcalf) Russo live a simple, blue-collar life in Queens, surrounded by the big personalities of their overbearing Italian-American family. When their lanky soft-spoken son ‘Sticks’ finds success on his high school basketball team and a chance at a life beyond what tradition expects, Leo tears the family apart trying to make it happen.

Rated R for adult language and sexual material

Somewhere in Queens | Official Trailer | In Theaters April 21 – YouTube

POSITIVES

In his debut directing effort, Romano conjures authenticity and traditionalism to characters who feel every bit lived in with complexity among chemistry and nuances as they do particular with the sense of community that dominates the film’s cinematography. This affords “Somewhere in Queens” a charming exubberance that effortlessly helps it to transcend the fictional enveloping for a series of interactions that feels like Romano just pressed record on a camera, before letting these boldly vibrant personalities do the rest. As expected, this affords some three-dimensional depth to the variety of performances, but in the case of Romano and Metcalf, triggers a realistic dynamic that feels like the culmination of decades of marriage between them, with each of them being the primary ingredient towards driving the other crazy. For Metcalf, she’s always embraced this fiery radiance, but here it’s her sternly stoic demeanor and imposing influence that is most conveying, affording her freedom between unapologetically honest deliveries that spares no one in her devastation, but also these gripping dramatic diatribes that prove her capable of taking over a scene with gripping intensity, whenever she wants. For Romano, the same charms in comedic consistency dominate his performance, but it also provides him a chance to unravel some depth towards his character that articulates the disappointment and disdain while inside of life’s mundane routine, complete with a beat to his own rhythm that often puts the rest of his life on autopilot, while the irresponsible dreamer from within him frequently captivates his imagination. Lastly, much credit to Romano and particularly the casting agent for reaching out to Jacob Ward, the film’s adolescent protagonist, who supplants some unforeseen talents to his work as Sticks. For starters, Ward is a first time actor, so the awkwardness and introverted consistency to his design serves the performance exceptionally. However, it’s Ward’s work on the basketball court that is most integral here, as the actor played basketball in high school, so unlike a majority of other actors playing athletes, is able to pull off some remarkable feats during in-game sequences that allows the editing to relax its sorcery for trickery, instead articulating the athlete from within Ward that makes him perfect for the role. As previously illustrated, the film has the best of both world’s, in dramatic and comedic mainstays, with Romano naturally able to induce both to the integrity of a scene or sequence, without one depended more or compromising of the other’s meaningful merit. Because of such, there were plenty of times during the film where the adult material supplanted more than a few laughs to my endearing engagement, but also moments when the stakes within confrontations materialize properly in their unraveling, taking audiences on a roller-coaster of emotions that permeate naturally without ever feeling melodramatic or manipulative in their rendering. This is equally the case within Mark Orton’s accoustic bending musical score, which trades in the syrupy shallowness of most dramatic scores for complexity in range that brings forth a vibrancy of instruments that you wouldn’t expect for conflicts so homegrown and materialized in humanity. Orton’s compositions work brilliantly and subtly within the dynamic of the scenes they accommodate, leaving much of the heavy lifting to the actors themselves with respectable volume levels that underline instead of overwhelm.

NEGATIVES

Not everything goes according to plan with Romano’s debut behind the lens, as a couple of technical componenets don’t quite live up to the rest of the execution that are meticulously ironed out. For starters, the editing here is in a dire need of another post-production hemming, with certain scenes padding out the runtime to reach 101 minutes of the finished product. In my opnion, the film’s material definitely earns every bit of that allowance, with an evolution and journey for characters that takes them miles, but certain scenes can definitely be trimmed for pacing, especially when they meander the same thoughts and commentary that was realized minutes prior. It’s so frequent that easily five to ten minutes could be removed, and the film would lose nothing from it, but instead we’re left with scenes that feel like the director’s cut of interactions that often overstay their welcome. Beyond this, the A.D.R of the production is ruthlessly flawed throughout, with the words from actors casually not lining up to the movements of their mouths. As established in the past, if this happens a time or two throughout the duration, I can easily forgive it, but when it’s so consistently obvious and apparent that post-production influence intruded on the sanctity and spontaneity of a scene, I’m left distracted from committing myself to the beats of the narrative, with too much repetition for the occasion. Finally, the first act of the film feels a bit aimless and sedated in finding its way to the materializing of the plot. This is great for establishing character dynamics and each vibrant personality of this intimate family, but isn’t talented enough to set the movements in motion simultaneously, leaving the audience waiting a bit longer than expected for conflicts to arise in the confines of a family drama.

OVERALL
“Somewhere in Queens” is a strongly promising debut for Ray Romano as a director, even if he inherits a few underwhelming elements of production that demean his genetic make-up as a compelling storyteller. Between honesty and authenticity in everything from his dysfunctional family to their many internal conflicts, he’s able to tap into a realistic factor for the foray that very few films or directors can capably conjure, giving us a hearty and humbling slice of Italian-Americana that constantly has us coming back for seconds.

My Grade: 7/10 or B-