Mr. Movie | ‘The Many Saints of Newark’ — so good it’s a crime

“The Many Saints of Newark” is a prequel to the popular TV series, “The Sopranos.”

As most of you know, it ran on HBO for six seasons. It was incredible TV and picked up 21 Primetime Emmys and five Golden Globes. The series made stars of James Gandolfini, Edie Falco and others.

I only saw a couple of the 86 episodes and wish I’d seen more.

A lot of you didn’t see any of the series episodes or, like me, only saw a few. Not to worry. While fans of the series will know some of the peripheral characters and the history of the family, the non-fan doesn’t need to know a whole lot about the Sopranos legacy to enjoy, “The Many Saints of Newark.”

This is a great stand-alone movie that gives you the background of how mob boss, Tony Soprano got to be Tony Soprano.

The late Gandolfini’s son, Michael, plays his father’s character as a teenager. At this point the younger Gandolfini doesn’t seem to be as loaded with talent or as charismatic as his father, but — to be fair — he really isn’t given a lot to do.

We’ll see how his career goes from here especially if they decide to give these saints of Newark their own TV series.

The story is wrapped around Dickie Moltisanti. He’s Tony’s uncle and one of the leaders of an Italian mob family living in Newark, New Jersey.

Though the film is mostly about Dickie and his rise and fall, it also has some interesting subplots attached to his story. One details the formation of a rival African-American gang by a friend of Dickie’s. Another shows how Dickie became the prime mover in the Tony’s development as a mob leader.

The screenplay is written by The Sopranos creator, David Chase and Lawrence Konner who penned the 2001 Tim Burton film, “The Planet of the Apes.”

Their story goes much the same direction as the TV series. Violence, murders, shakedowns, sex and regrets percolate through the plot. Dickie has a confessor like Gandolfini’s TV Tony. Instead of Tony’s psychologist couch, Dickie’s go-to-guy is an uncle doing life in prison for a murder.

All advice given to Dickie is neatly wrapped in a philosophy akin to something Buddhist and is nicely, and matter-of-factly, delivered by Ray Liotta.

“The Many Saints of Newark” is directed by Alan Taylor who won an Emmy for directing a Sopranos episode in 2007. He also directed several Game of Thrones episodes and did a Thor movie. The guy knows what he’s doing when it comes to this kind of entertainment.

His directing is to the point. There is no wasted space and, best of all, no scenes to pad for length. “The Many Saints of Newark” is fast-paced from start to finish and is one of the best movies I’ve seen this year.

The real find in the film is one of my favorite supporting players, Alessandro Nivola. Most of you don’t know who he is, and I don’t see him often enough. Nivola is one of those great, mostly unknown, character actors who make every movie they’re in, better.

Taylor and the two screenwriters surround Nivola, Gandolfini and Liotta with very believable supporting actors. The men are so well-cast that if you ran into most of them in an area known as a mobster hangout, you’d swear they are part of the gang. Same goes for the women.

Italian actress, Michela De Rossi and a nearly unrecognizable, Vera Farmiga are decked out in 1970s attire, and with other ladies in the cast are seen as window-dressing for men to use as either a mistress or a baby factory.

As good as everyone else is, it’s Nivola who owns this movie. The first time I remember seeing him was with Amy Adams in “Junebug” in 2005. In tune with the notorious larceny of the mobster he plays here, Nivola stole that movie as he steals this one.

Since we’ve laid the groundwork with Liotta’s buddhist-like advice, we can characterize Nivola as throwing a lot of Yin and Yang into Dickie’s character. He’s handsome and sophisticated yet quietly evil. When he loses his temper the explosion seems so out of character.

It’s a great piece of acting and one that makes me hope Chase and Konner will turn this one into a TV series. Or if no series, how about a sequel? You — like me and those craving anything Sopranos — will likely want more.

Rated R for mature themes, extreme violence, language, sex and nudity. It’s playing at the Fairchild Cinemas Pasco, Southgate 10 and Queensgate 12 and at the AMC Classic Kennewick 12.

Rating: 5 out of 5

This story was originally published October 1, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Mr. Movie | ‘The Many Saints of Newark’ — so good it’s a crime."