City Island (2009)

It sounds glib to call Raymond De Felitta's "City Island" this year's "Little Miss Sunshine," yet the comparison is apt. Both films depict dysfunctional families nearing collapse, and both are blessed with razor-sharp screenplays and ensemble casts that are wonderfully, hilariously perfect. Each member of the cast (especially top-billed Andy Garcia) gives an Oscar-worthy performance, and all will be robbed if they don't win the Screen Actors Guild Best Ensemble Cast Award next year.

The eponymous "City Island" is a small community just off the shoreline of the Bronx, officially part of that borough but with a small-town charm all its own. As Molly Charlesworth (Emily Mortimer), one of the film's characters, declares, "It's a cross between New England and Washington Heights!" Vince Rizzo (Andy Garcia) is a "clamdigger" (a lifelong resident of City Island), as opposed to a "mussel-sucker" (someone who moves to City Island, or one of those very rare natives who moves away). Vince works as a prison guard (though he prefers the term "corrections officer"), but that job doesn't seem to satisfy him these days. His wife Joyce (Julianna Margulies), daughter Vivian (Dominik Garcia-Lorido) and son Vince Jr. (Ezra Miller) wonder why Vince has a "poker game" almost every night, and also why he's brought paroled convict Tony Nardella (Steven Strait) home to live with them. The other Rizzos, meanwhile, are harboring secrets of their own...

To reveal any more of the plot would be sabotage. Let's just say the bickering of the Rizzo family reaches critical mass, with catharsis to follow. In any case, you fall in love with all the characters, and although you might be a little leery of some of the things they do, you'd still be happy to have them all over for your Sunday barbeque. "City Island" is a funny, charming, touching must-see.

I think that it's become my mantra--"quirk is the curse of independent cinema." In an effort to be cutesy and/or clever, films have been systematically stripping away genuine warmth and humor by presenting character types and sitcom contrivances instead of mining what is really funny in our everyday foibles. It becomes a fine balancing act, then, because a good quirky film can be both hysterical and touch your heartstrings. However, one that goes over the top can be painfully unreal and hard to sit through. And, in my opinion, there is very little middle ground. So it is with some trepidation that I picked up "City Island," a family comedy that promised to explore the eccentricities (code word for quirk) and secrets in the working class Rizzo clan. And, in a pleasant surprise, here the quirk works!

Headlined by Andy Garcia and Julianna Margulies, "City Island" follows the boisterous Rizzo family as it navigates its way through enough secrets and deceptions to fuel several movies. Everyone is lying to everyone else! Garcia has a "secret" love child who is a convict, Margulies suspect him of cheating when he's "secretly" taking acting classes, their son has a "secret" fetish, their daughter has a "secret" job, and everyone "secretly" smokes--heck even Garcia's acting partner (Emily Mortimer) has a big "secret." That's a lot of secrets and leads to a lot of confrontation for one movie. But inexplicably, "City Island" and its immensely likable cast juggle these story lines like pros. The set-up is genuinely funny and the big revelations strike just the right note between hilarity and warmth.

Garcia is a hoot through-out, but credit must be given to the entire cast. Mortimer, in a role that might have been a disaster, provides genuine intelligence and pathos. Ezra Miller, as the son, is spot on hilarious--especially in the film's first half. And Steven Strait, as the love child con, is a revelation as the voice of reason within the madness! Writer/Director Raymond De Felitta has taken my worst nightmare and turned in one of the more effortlessly enjoyable films I've seen in a while. Slight, but very funny, "City Island" is a definite recommendation. KGHarris 9/10.

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Reading and the movies offer the opportunity to explore new and unusual places, some of them not far from home. Thus, the movie "City Island" introduced me to a small fishing village of that name in, the Bronx, New York, of all places. City Island is a quaint close-knit fishing village of about 4000 people on the west end of Long Island Sound. This movie, which won the audience award at the Tribecca Film Festival in 2009, is set and was filmed in City Island. It is a town of old homes, beaches, bridges, fishing vessels, and the water. Residents of City Island distinguish between "Mussel Suckers" the larger part of the community born outside the community and "Clam Diggers" those residents who grew up in City Island. This distinction is carried over into the movie.

The story itself might have happened anywhere, but it gains strength by the setting in a small urban area where people seemingly know their neighbors. The movie tells of the secrets that people hold from those closest to them and of the difficulties of opening up. The main character is the Rizzo family. Vincent Rizzo, played by Andy Garcia who also produced the movie is a middle-aged corrections office (he resents the term "prison guard") who harbors dreams of being an actor. He attends acting school one evening a week and, to avoid embarrassment, tells his disbelieving wife that he is out for a poker night. A woman student at the acting school with secrets of her own encourages Vince who begins as an imitator of Marlon Brando and learns to act in his own person and character. Against odds, newcomer Vince auditions for a tough-guy part in a movie by Scorsese.

Vince's hard-bitten wife, Joyce, (Juliana Margulies) feels lonely and frustrated as she feels the passion between Vincent and herself has died. She thinks Vince is having an affair during his "poker night" and of course thinks the worst when she meets Vince's acting companion. The couple have two children, Vivian (Dominik Garcia-Lorido) who unknown to her family has dropped out of college and is working as a stripper in the hope of returning to school and high school student Vince, Jr. (Ezra Miller). Ezra is strongly attracted to big beautiful women (BBWs), including his neighbor who has a BBW cam site and a young girl in his high school class who at the outset spurns him. It was endearing and refreshing to see a story of men who are attracted to large women. Vince Rizzo also has a secret in that before his marriage to Joyce he fathered a child and then left the mother. The son he had never met, Tony, (Steven Sttrait) winds up in prison. Without revealing his identity, Vince brings Tony into his home. The movie features a long denouement in which the family, and other associated characters level with each other and learn who they themselves, and the other people, each are.

City Island is an entertaining well-acted movie about the difficulty of knowing self and others. In an unpretentious way, it gets inside the feelings and dreams of its characters. But the movie also taught me about a place I hadn't seen or heard of before and made it come to life. I loved seeing it, and I found getting to know City Island the place the main attraction of this movie.

Robin Friedman

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I was at first skeptical about this movie, as to whether or not I would enjoy it, but after the first five minutes into it, I was hooked. The script, the acting, the development of the characters, and the film overall was outstanding! I don't say this too often about movies and I have never written a review about one before... Needless to say, I had to share with everyone out there my sincere enjoyment of this film. If I was to recommend a film this one would be it! It's a classic!

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I have to say that "City Island" is one interesting little piece of cinema. This 2009 movie features Andy Garcia and Julianna Margulies in the leads. I found it kind of refreshing to see Andy Garcia in a lead role again. In the late 1980s and early 1990s good old Andy was a head liner. However, in the past few years he has taken supporting roles, which hasn't influenced any of his performances but has taken him out of the "spot light". In "City Island" I am happy to report that Andy Garcia is in the "spot light" again. This isn't to say that the rest of the cast is sub par. Julianna Margulies, who I was only familiar with from "ER", is amazing. As well as a strong supporting cast featuring Steven Strait, Dominik Garcia-Lorido, Ezra Miller, Emily Mortimer and Alan Arkin (in a small role).

The movie takes place in City Island which is a section of the Bronx. Andy Garcia plays a corrections officer named Vince who has desire to be an actor. This desire has manifested in him going to weekly acting classes. However, he is ashamed that his family won't understand his "true calling" so he just tells his family he is playing poker. Julianna Margulies plays Joyce and she believes that her husband isn't playing poker, but drifting away from her emotionally by having an affair. Dominik Garcia-Lorido and Ezra Miller play Vivian and Vince Jr., respectively, the daughter and son of the family. Vivian has her own skeletons, she is a college student who lost her scholarship and is now a stripper to pay her way through school. Vince Jr. is also a bit alienated; he is a caustic teenager with a fetish towards overweight woman and his yearning to feed them.

Now this dysfunctional family hides all of their idiosyncrasies from one and other, which leads to a great deal of circumstantial comedy. Yet, things become even more complex when Vince notices that a new inmate (Steven Strait) is his long lost son. Twenty-four years ago, Vince left a "girlfriend" of his who was pregnant. After some deductive reasoning he figures out this inmate is his son. So Vince tells Tony, the long lost son now inmate, that he is willing to bail him out if he would stay with him for a month. This sabbatical for Tony is a hidden agenda for Vince to tell his "son" the truth, but Vince masks this by saying he wants Tony to help him build a bathroom for his guest house.

There is much more to this movie, in fact this film has many layers. There are myriad elements in this movie that makes it a notch above your average comedy-drama/dark comedy. This movie reminds me of "American Beauty (Widescreen Edition)" and "Life as a House (New Line Platinum Series)", not because it has the same story of either film. In contrast, it has same depth of both films, the ability to promote a smile and a tear. I am really shocked this movie didn't get a wide release; I think it would have done very well. It appears nowadays real films are classified as "art films" or "independent films", meanwhile the mainstream is filled with lousy remakes, CGI mind numbing drivel and the occasional good flick. I think this is an amazing movie and one to not be missed. The story, directing, writing, cinematography and acting are marvelous! So go ahead and take a trip to "City Island".

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