"Somewhere In Queens" -- Movie Review

 

On the first weekend of the Tribeca Festival, I attended the World Premiere of the new comedy “Somewhere In Queens”, the directorial debut of Ray Romano. 

Synopsis

When a father gets overly involved in his basketball star son’s athletic career, will his micromanagement destroy the family? 

Story

The Russos live in the Glendale neighborhood of Queens in New York City.  This proud Italian-American family is tightly-knit, enjoying a large family dinner every Sunday.  Leo (Romano) is especially proud of his son Matthew (Jacob Ward), who’s nicknamed “Sticks” because of his long legs.  As a senior in high school, Sticks has gained quite a reputation as a talented basketball player for his school’s less-than-stellar team.  Leo expects that Sticks will probably join him working for the family’s construction company upon graduation – but things abruptly change when he learns that Sticks has been gaining support from top college scouts.

After a few phone calls are made, one of the scouts gets Sticks a tryout at Drexel University in Philadelphia.  Leo and his wife Angela (Laurie Metcalf) take Sticks to the school for a preliminary interview with the school’s athletic director.  It is decided that if Sticks performs well at the tryout, he will be offered a scholarship.  Leo has his sights set on Sticks not only being a star basketball player for the university, but also, getting a college education – something which he never quite managed to get for himself.  But a monkey wrench is thrown into those plans when Sticks learns that his girlfriend Dani (Sadie Stanley) has dumped him.

Leo needs Sticks to succeed – in part, because he wants his son to have a better life than he’s had.  But to be honest, it’s mostly because he now finds himself living his life through his son – Leo may want this for Sticks more than Sticks himself does.  Depressed and distraught over the loss of Dani, Sticks won’t play his best at the tryout.  As a result, Leo convinces Dani to stay with Sticks just a few weeks longer until he gets the tryout behind him.  Once Sticks gets passed the tryout, Dani immediately breaks up with him – again.  But when Sticks discovers that his father coerced Dani into remaining with him just to get by the tryout, how will this impact their family?

Review

Despite having an awkwardly mawkish and melodramatic third act, “Somewhere In Queens” is a delightfully entertaining movie.  Most of the script is quite good – well-structured with humor and drama in equal measure in all of the right parts.  In his directorial debut, Romano succeeds in telling a story that is so clearly very close to his heart.  Much of the reason why the film works is because of its authenticity; if you have grown up in New York City – and especially the borough of Queens – then these people are real to you.  You know who they are even if you’ve never even met any of them. 

To be clear, while there are moments in “Somewhere In Queens” that are quite funny, it is far from being an all-out comedy.  The humorous moments are blended with the serious ones and there is hardly a false note in any of them.  In that sense, it is recognizable because it is so much like life itself.  Romano’s gift is telling a universally human story, just as he did with his successful television show, “Everybody Loves Raymond”.  In fact, if you were a fan of that show, then it is likely you will love this film because the dysfunctionality of family members is on full display all throughout. 

Ray Romano appeared for an interview after the screening.  His co-writer was one of the writers from the show “Men Of A Certain Age” and he said that it took them a long time to write the script, in part because it was interrupted by Covid.  Initially, Romano was not interested in directing the movie; eventually, his agent convinced him to direct because the story was so personal.  Casting his son was a long process; there were many callbacks over the course of a month and a half.  When the actor finally found out he got the role it was when he got a call from his agent while he was in his car working to make a Post Mates food delivery.