2/4 Stars
What works:
- Somewhere in this mess, there's a compelling story about friendship, and betrayal, and trying to escape the confines of a provincial community, all against a backdrop of angst and paranoia in 1977 New York. - Richie (Adrien Brody) is a memorable character: an Italian kid from the Bronx, fascinated with the British punk scene.
- Son of Sam is more important to the atmosphere than the plot, which is a good thing. The film keeps returning to him without allowing him to overtake the rest of the story.
What doesn't:
- There's a lot of overacting here, especially from John Leguizamo. The blow-ups between his and Mira Sorvino's characters are borderline unwatchable.
- With the exception of Richie, every Italian male character is a walking stereotype. There's a lot of: "Hey paisan!" "Whatsamatta?" "Ay Marone" etc. Two of the characters are - I kid you not - Mario and Luigi.
- The female characters, Dionna (Mira Sorvino) and Ruby (Jennifer Esposito), feel underdeveloped.
- Gratuitous sex scenes gets in the way of the story. There was probably some moral outrage when this movie came out in 1999. To be clear, I'm not outraged - I just think it hurts the film.
- It's over-directed. Too much music, too many sex scenes, too little story.
Also, too little focus on Richie and too much focus on Vinny, whose story is a lot less interesting.
