The Many Saints of Newark
Whenever the conversation turns to “the greatest TV show of all-time”, no-one will argue that The Sopranos deserves a place at the very top table.
But I’m not sure a spin-off movie was a good idea.
The Many Saints of Newark is a standalone film with its own tone and landscape. The easiest way into this project would have been some extended and high-budget “lost episode”, or perhaps a straight-up prequel, to set up the conflicts that would define the series.
But The Many Saints is only a prequel in the loosest sense. It mostly takes place three decades or so before the events of The Sopranos, in the years from 1967 to 1972.
Urban America is in turmoil. As the Vietnam War escalates, riots and civil-rights protests are turning ugly in the face of police brutality. The Newark Riots of July 1967 were only one event in the legendary “long, hot summer” of that year, during which more than 100 North American cities saw protest turn into violence and looting.
In the traditionally Italian-American neighbourhoods of Newark, control of the streets is slipping – and Black gangs are beginning to assert their influence, as the number of Black-owned businesses starts to grow.
Against this backdrop, we meet young Tony Soprano – as a 10-year-old, and then at 15 – and the film starts to put flesh on the bones of the riotously dysfunctional and storied childhood we occasionally heard about during the show.
Supplied
Michael Gandolfini, left, plays the young Tony Soprano in The Many Saints of Newark.
The casting here is superb, with Vera Farmiga spooky and hilarious at channelling Nancy Marchand as she plays the younger Livia Soprano – Tony’s fearsome mother.
Nearly as good is Corey Stoll as Uncle “Junior” Soprano, transforming over a couple of key scenes from an insecure associate, into the embittered, inadequate and venomous figure of the series.
But most affecting is Michael Gandolfini, playing Tony as an adolescent. Michael is the son of James – who, of course, was Tony Soprano across all six seasons of the TV series. Watching the son take on the role, with some of the mannerisms clearly coming from a far deeper place than “acting”, I was reminded of how great a character Tony Soprano was, but also of what an incredible piece of work James Gandolfini left us. Michael is great as the young Tony, but he is also a powerful reminder of what The Many Saints is missing.
We might disagree over “the greatest TV show of all-time”. But maybe we can all agree, that the greatest ever performance in any TV show, was James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano, the dark star that held it all together.
And maybe that is the reason The Many Saints of Newark never really grabbed or entranced me. The film succeeds at world-building and myth-enhancing, but it just doesn’t have the presence of that pitiable, soulful and melancholic monster that James Gandolfini built.
Without him, The Many Saints, whatever its many strengths, just isn’t The Sopranos.
Lionsgate
Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard is now available to stream on Netflix.
Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard
Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard is a loose sequel to what was a pretty likeable and fun 2017 original.
Hitman’s Bodyguard teamed Samuel L Jackson and Ryan Reynolds in a buddy comedy about a hitman who must testify in court and the bodyguard who has to get him there in one piece. It was no Midnight Run, but the leads had some chemistry and the drop-in from Salma Hayek – as Jackson’s wife – was a highlight.
Director Patrick Hughes, wisely, unleashes Hayek early and often in this film. And Hayek repays the favour by leaving everything on the floor in a performance of comic dementedness that really deserved a lot more genuinely funny lines than there are to be found here. When Reynolds turned to Hayek after one early profane tirade and said, “your mouth needs an exorcism”, I actually laughed out loud. But, that was as good as the film ever really got.
Antonio Banderas is the obligatory super-villain-who-has-a-secret-weapon, but even he looks as though he wishes Christopher Walken had been available. The great Frank Grillo guests as a government agent, in a story tangent so haphazard and muddled, I can only assume most of it is still on the editor’s floor. A surprise cameo – I won’t spoil it – is a treat, but by the time it arrives, even this is far too little, too late.
This film, a bit like Reynolds’ Deadpool 2, is a rehash of an earlier success. But with not much left to do that the first instalment hadn’t already milked for every gag it had.
Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard isn’t terrible. It’s just a lazy and uninteresting film badly in need of a few new ideas.
Icon Film Distribution
6 Days is now available to stream on Netflix.
6 Days
New Zealand director Toa Fraser (The Dead Lands) was an unexpected choice to make this recreation of the hostage situation that unfolded at the Iranian embassy in London in 1980.
Six members of Iran’s Arabic-speaking minority had taken 26 people captive. And from the 30th of April until the 5th of May, an unlikely drama played out in the leafy streets of Kensington. On the sixth day, the British SAS stormed the building.
Fraser builds 6 Days as a near-documentary style recreation. There is very little fictionalisation going on here – and that might disappoint anyone hoping for a Pomgolian White House Down. But, 6 Days has a bunch of very decent performances – Mark Strong, Jamie Bell and Abbie Cornish especially – and the storming, when it arrives, is brutally well-portrayed.
6 Days is a slow-burning, responsible and thoughtful approach to a genre that doesn’t often earn those adjectives. Recommended.
