Capsule Review
Last week, I saw a surprisingly very good movie that (finally) began streaming on Hulu. (I’d been waiting for it since it was released over a year ago.) It’s called Somewhere in Queens – and the reason it’s surprising is because it’s directed and co-written by Ray Romano, who also stars in it.
I’d heard praise for it over a year ago, because (as readers here well-know...) I listen to the wonderful Naked Lunch podcast that Phil Rosenthal co-hosts -- and who co-created with Ray Romano the series Everybody Loves Raymond -- and he’s talked about it with great pride and admiration, and also had Romano on as a guest, as well as the TV series' co-star Brad Garrett who is so humorously snarky about everything, but was raving about the movie – so, I’ve been waiting and waiting for it to stream. And finally it has.
There’s a lot that’s funny in the movie, but mainly it’s actually a drama, at times even serious and even a bit edgy, but not uncomfortably so, in that it always has a good heart. He’s very good in it, too, and Laurie Metcalf as his wife is wonderful, in a very tough role. It's a role that could be played so many different ways, and almost all of them wrong. But she dove deep into it and got it all spot on. In fact, everyone is wonderful in it, each of them having edges to who they are. As a director, Romano he got excellent performances from everyone. (A nice, small performance by Tony LoBianco stands out, as does an important role by a young actress Sadie Stanley.)
And it’s very well-written and quite nicely directed, filled with nuance. It’s about a large, multi-generational, slightly-dysfunctional Italian-American family, and the put-upon father in the middle who wants a better life for his son. And it’s got a hilarious last line of which I want to say so much more, but I won't.
For what it’s worth, It has a 91% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 92% audience rating, so it’s not just me who liked it.
In fact, I recommended it to a friend in the Academy who I wasn’t sure would like it, it didn't seem like it was necessarily his kind of movie, though I thought it possible he might. So, I risked telling him about it. He watched the movie the next day...and wrote back --
“Thanks for recommending Somewhere in Queens. I loved it. A true surprise. Romano has far more range and nuance as a filmmaker than I expected. I watched it on Hulu, but I now see it's on the Academy site, too, so I'm glad the distributor is supporting it. Yes, Lori Metcalfe was astounding. They all shined, but she made that character so distinctive. And yes, you’re right -- the perfect fadeout line.”
Here's the trailer.
Comments