''City Island'' is a 2009 American
comedy-drama
Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...
film directed and written by
Raymond De Felitta
Raymond De Felitta (born 30 June 1964) is an American independent film director, screenwriter and musician.
Early life
De Felitta was born in New York City. His father Frank De Felitta was Italian American and his mother Dorothy Gilbert De Feli ...
and starring
Andy Garcia
Andy may refer to:
People
* Andy (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
* Horace Andy (born 1951), Jamaican roots reggae songwriter and singer born Horace Hinds
* Katja Andy (1907–2013), German-American pianist and pi ...
,
Julianna Margulies
Julianna Margulies (; born June 8, 1966) is an American actress. After several small television roles, Margulies achieved wide recognition for her starring role as Carol Hathaway on NBC's long-running medical drama series '' ER'' (1994–2009), ...
,
Alan Arkin
Alan Wolf Arkin (born March 26, 1934) is an American actor, director and screenwriter known for his performances on stage and screen. Throughout his career spanning over six decades, he has received various accolades, including an Academy Award ...
,
Emily Mortimer
Emily Kathleen Anne Mortimer (born 6 October 1971) is a British-American actress. She began acting in stage productions and has since appeared in several film and television roles. In 2003, she won an Independent Spirit Award for her performanc ...
and
Ezra Miller
Ezra Matthew Miller (born September 30, 1992) is an American actor. Their feature film debut was in '' Afterschool'' (2008), which they followed by starring in the drama '' We Need to Talk About Kevin'' (2011) and '' The Perks of Being a Wallf ...
. It premiered at the
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...
in New York City on April 26, 2009. The title refers to the
Bronx's City Island, where the film is set.
Plot
Living on
City Island, in
the Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
, Vince Rizzo, a
prison guard
A prison officer or corrections officer is a uniformed law enforcement official responsible for the custody, supervision, safety, and regulation of prisoners. They are responsible for the care, custody, and control of individuals who have been ...
, is the father of a dysfunctional family whose members all have secrets. Vince discovers that his secret
illegitimate son
Legitimacy, in traditional Western common law, is the status of a child born to parents who are legally married to each other, and of a child conceived before the parents obtain a legal divorce. Conversely, ''illegitimacy'', also known as '' ...
is now the 24-year-old prison inmate Tony Nardella who is being held in the same prison where he works. Without revealing this truth to his family, Vince consequently gets Tony out of prison and employs him as hired help at his own home in order to become closer with his unknowing son. Vince has also been secretly taking acting lessons, taught by Michael Malakov, and begins to form a
platonic bond with Molly, an aspiring actress.
Meanwhile, Vince's 20-year-old daughter Vivian (played by the real-life daughter of her on-screen father) has not told her family that she has been suspended from college, lost her scholarship, gotten
breast implant
A breast implant is a prosthesis used to change the size, shape, and contour of a person's breast. In reconstructive plastic surgery, breast implants can be placed to restore a natural looking breast following a mastectomy, to correct congenital ...
s, and become a stripper to try to pay for her next semester; their youngest teenage child, Vinnie, has a secret
sexual fetish
Sexual fetishism or erotic fetishism is a sexual fixation on a nonliving object or nongenital body part. The object of interest is called the fetish; the person who has ''a fetish'' for that object is a fetishist. A sexual fetish may be regard ...
for
feeding large women, and fantasizes about their fat next-door neighbor; and Vince's wife, Joyce, thinking she has lost all marital intimacy, sexually pursues Tony without realizing that he is her stepson.
Vince successfully auditions for a part in a
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominatio ...
film, while his wife and Tony seek each other's sexual attention. Vince, Jr. befriends the neighbor, who helps to bring him closer to an overweight girl whom he has been attracted to at school.
Tensions rise as the family's many dysfunctions come to a head. Tony, finally deciding to escape the insanity of the Rizzo household, steals their car but finds Vivian working at the strip club. Just before the group is nearly torn apart in a violent outburst, Vince reveals the truth about everything, with Tony discovering in amazement that the dysfunctional family he sought to escape is actually his own. Vivian and the others admit their faults and Vince acknowledges the family's problems with the desire to work them out. The finally relieved group reunites in forgiveness toward one another, welcoming the overwhelmed Tony as a new member of their bizarre but loving family. Vince lands the film role.
Cast
*
Andy García
Andrés Arturo García Menéndez (born April 12, 1956), known professionally as Andy García, is a Cuban-born American actor, director and musician. He first rose to prominence acting in Brian De Palma's ''The Untouchables'' (1987) alongside ...
as Vince Rizzo
*
Julianna Margulies
Julianna Margulies (; born June 8, 1966) is an American actress. After several small television roles, Margulies achieved wide recognition for her starring role as Carol Hathaway on NBC's long-running medical drama series '' ER'' (1994–2009), ...
as Joyce Rizzo
*
Steven Strait
Steven Strait (born March 23, 1986) is an American actor and singer. He is best known for starring in the adventure film '' Sky High'' (2005) and the science fiction series ''The Expanse'' (2015–2022).
Early life
Strait was born and raised in ...
as Tony
*
Emily Mortimer
Emily Kathleen Anne Mortimer (born 6 October 1971) is a British-American actress. She began acting in stage productions and has since appeared in several film and television roles. In 2003, she won an Independent Spirit Award for her performanc ...
as Molly
*
Ezra Miller
Ezra Matthew Miller (born September 30, 1992) is an American actor. Their feature film debut was in '' Afterschool'' (2008), which they followed by starring in the drama '' We Need to Talk About Kevin'' (2011) and '' The Perks of Being a Wallf ...
as Vince Jr.
*
Dominik García-Lorido as Vivian Rizzo
* Carrie Baker Reynolds as Denise
* Hope Glendon-Ross as Cheryl
*
Alan Arkin
Alan Wolf Arkin (born March 26, 1934) is an American actor, director and screenwriter known for his performances on stage and screen. Throughout his career spanning over six decades, he has received various accolades, including an Academy Award ...
as Michael Malakov
Reception
Box office
''City Island'' was a modest success, grossing $6,671,036 domestically and $7,875,862 worldwide based on a $6 million budget.
Critical reception
''City Island'' received generally positive reviews. It holds an 81% approval rating on
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, based on 101 reviews, and an average rating of 6.8/10. The website's critical consensus states, "Raymond De Felitta combines warmth, humanity, and a natural sense of humor, and is abetted by Andy Garcia and an excellent ensemble cast." On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, which uses a weighted average score based on reviews from critics, the film has a score of 66 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Awards
* Received the First Place Audience Award at the
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...
.
References
External links
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:City Island
2009 films
2009 comedy-drama films
2009 independent films
2000s American films
2000s English-language films
American comedy-drama films
American independent films
City Island, Bronx
Films about dysfunctional families
Films about striptease
Films directed by Raymond De Felitta
Films scored by Jan A. P. Kaczmarek
Films set in the Bronx
Films set on islands
Films shot in New York City