“WEST OF BROOKLYN” IS A GOOD TIME ANYWHEREBy Tova Navarra
For those who loyally follow movies about Italian-Americans, stereotypes and all, there is a slice of real Italians’ lives that won’t involve a Godfather horse head in the bed or Moonstruck torment over a prosthetic hand.
Actor Ronnie Marmo delivers his new film,
West of Brooklyn, hot, fresh and straight from the heart. Marmo, of “General Hospital” fame and a former Woodbridge, NJ, resident, wrote, produced and starred in an embraceable story of a young Italian-American man, Sebastiano ---“Sebi”--- who works in a pizzeria but is a secret beat poet. Sebi idolizes a Bronx poet named Gaetano D’Amico (Joe Mantegna, of
Godfather III and other films and television series). Under D’Amico’s beneficent influence, he produces a growing and impressive anthology of poems.
After his devoted mother (Liz Torres, “Gilmore Girls”) dies in the family home in Brooklyn, Sebi and his brothers and friends decide to relocate the restaurant west of Brooklyn---L.A., that is. Although the New Yorkers are colorful and of diverse temperament, they are fish at least partially out of water in Hollywood, and Sebi longs to find a place he can really call home.
The plot is that old, omnipresent one, but in Marmo’s hands ever so palatable. Sebi meets Matty (Natalia Livingston, also of “General Hospital”), a beautiful rich Beverly Hills girl who falls for Sebi’s humor, ethnicity, and his essence of Cyrano with a touch of Romeo. The film’s Tony and Maria, they lock eyes across the pizzeria, and one can’t help but root for them to get together. Matty, with her sweet, if Hollywood, acceptance resonates with Sebi as a talented poet, albeit one who hides his passion from his less scholastically inclined friends.
Through various crises, the group evolves into a well-suited ensemble: the talented Sinatra wannabe (Louis Vanaria); the hot-tempered Jimmy boy (James Madio) and his spitfire girlfriend (Joleigh Fioreavanti); Papo (Robert Costanzo), the father figure who owns the restaurant, Papo’s son (Mel Rodriguez)---a roster of good-natured, believable buffi.
But the one we’re watching a bit more closely than the others is Sebi. He smacks slightly of Ronnie Cammereri (Nicolas Cage), the character in Moonstruck who, despite his torment, falls madly in love with Loretta Castorini (Cher). They both work in the food industry and are secretly passionate (Cammereri loves opera, Sebi poetry). And both get the girl without a surrealistic, Fellini-like story line.
Which means the real soul of the film lies not in the events, but in the characters. Yes, there’s death, and there are little twists and turns that may be more predictable than Tony Manero’s triumph on the disco dance floor in Saturday Night Fever. Even the film score by Michael Sherwood and Carl Saunders carries musical descriptions of each character as if they were in an opera. This philosophically parallels the movie’s subtitle: “You bring you wherever you go.”
Indeed, if you want sinister, fanny-pinching, hedonistic thugs, West of Brooklyn isn’t for you. As Mantegna said in an interview about the movie, “There are Italians named Dante as well as Capone.” It’s nice to know that the film’s director, Danny Cistone (who makes a cameo appearance), can do the Italian man-hugs without the dark side of Hollywood, Brooklyn, or God knows, New Jersey.
“West of Brooklyn” is available on DVD (including a special features disk of deleted scenes, backstory, trailers, photogallery and poetry) at
www.westofbrooklynthemovie.com.
