French review of "Little New York"

translated by Babelfish and Bing --

avoir-alire.com, 7.22.09

The argument: Sully, clearer of septic tanks and future father, is very ready to ensure the future of his son. Jasper, a modest grocer, has a very important quality in the eyes of the mafia he works for, which is compelled and forced: he is deaf-mute. Parmie Tarzo, head of the local mafia, would be seen eliminating competition. All three live in Staten Island, under the overwhelming shadow of Manhattan. Their paths will cross, a presumption for the worse...

Our opinion: Difficult to live in the shade of a city like New York. It is however the daily batch of the inhabitants of Staten Island, an island which was a long time the dustbin of Large Apple, since it also allowed the development of the Mafia. James De Monaco's film perfectly draws the outlines of the inferiority complex of this island society. Different paths of the three main characters join this point, namely to check out their conditions to finally exist in the eyes of the "real" world embodied by Manhattan successfully. New York is their goal, their motivation, their anchor to give up. Each looks to the other side in silence, their gaze full of expectations before taking action. For them, Staten Island is only the entryway. You survive or die.

With the image of this shifted island, the motivations of the characters appear absurd and touch us by their naivete, marked with a profound melancholy. Between the gangster who wants to beat the world records of apnea then to save the forest, the young cleaner of septic tanks who wishes to establish genes of intelligence of his wife's fetus, the old dumb deaf person who has played races for 30 years but does not know what to do once he has earned. All this gives rise to little trivial scenes highlighted by the slow rhythm as in the whodunnits of Fargo of the Coen Brothers or a simple plot of Sam Raimi.

Only one problem with this original score: the narrative structure is a little too well tied up, so much that one guesses the course of the events easily.

Ah yes, in fact, Vincent D'Onofrio is great. But you knew that already, didn't you?


Thanks MarieDeFrance!