Romano, Metcalf anchor stellar directorial debut
Ray Romano is one of our most underrated dramatic actors. If you know him only from the network sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, you’ve only seen a fraction of what he’s capable of. Check him out in the indies Paddleton or The Big Sick, for which his heartbreakingly honest monologue about infidelity should have netted him a Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. Or better yet: go see him in his outstanding feature film directorial debut Somewhere in Queens, opening today.
In addition to directing and starring in the picture, Romano also wrote it with Mark Stegemann, his co-writer on the similarly criminally underrated television dramedy Men of a Certain Age. Dramedy is an apt word for Romano’s new film as well. While it deals with serious issues, it’s also filled with laugh-out-loud moments, including a zinger of a final line that deserves its own prize for both its content and its delivery by the great Laurie Metcalf.
Metcalf plays Angela, married to Romano’s Leo. The two are former high school sweethearts, living in Queens and immersed in their Italian-American family and community. They’re raising their high school senior son Matthew (Jacob Ward), nicknamed Sticks because of his long legs. Sticks is a decent basketball player, and Leo is his biggest fan, never missing a game, even when it means conflicting with his stern father Dominic (Tony Lo Bianco) and brother Frank (Sebastian Maniscalco, having fun playing a bully). Dominic, Frank, and Leo comprise Russo Construction, the family business, and that Sticks will join the crew after graduation goes without saying. But an offhand comment by a college scout who sees Sticks play changes Leo’s mind about what might be possible for his son’s future.
What follows is a warm-hearted yet remarkably truthful movie about family, parenting, and growing up. When Sticks’s first girlfriend, Dani (Sadie Stanley) breaks up with Sticks, Leo makes a questionable decision about how to help his bereft son. Misguided as these actions are, they come from a place of love. Or do they? How much of what we do to ostensibly help our family really stems from our own wants and dreams, and harms more than hurts? Parents transferring their own desires to their children is nothing new, but Romano’s take is fresh and touching, thanks in large part to terrific performances by Ronmano, Metcalf, Stanley, and Ward.
Stanley, a former Disney channel star, is a stand out here, imbuing Dani with spunk, compassion, and a maturity beyond her years. We understand why Sticks, who is painfully shy and suffers from anxiety, is taken with her and devastated when she ends things. When Dani tells him gently but forcefully, “Everybody’s scared, Sticks,” we know that she’s one of the rare people who not only recognizes her fears, but has the strength to push through them.
Dani’s bravery contrasts with the other characters, who are struggling to overcome their own internal conflicts. For Leo, that means his feelings of inferiority with his father and brother; for Angela, crippling worry that her breast cancer might return; and for Sticks, trepidation at finding a path that is his own, and not his father’s.
All these elements are beautifully woven through the central story of Leo’s hard press for Sticks’s possible collegiate basketball career. Heavy as these themes may be, Romano unspools them with equal parts humor and grace: you will tear up as much as you laugh.
On that note, one of the picture’s amusing recurring bits is Leo’s obsession with Rocky. And what Romano has done here is make a similarly poignant, crowd-pleasing film that leaves us rooting for all its characters. Romano and Stegemann offer us a comparable message that yes, finding your own way is hard, but reimagining your dreams is not only possible, but also sometimes necessary.
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Somewhere in Queens opens today at Bay Area theaters.
