March 16, 2007
ST. PADDY'S DAY MOVIE RECOMMENDATION
("Do we go if Frankie calls, or if he doesn't call?")
When it was released in 1990, State of Grace disappointed at the box office. Some have speculated that it was simply overshadowed by another film about gangsters that year: Goodfellas. The former is still lacking in recognition to this day though. Primarily because it rarely if ever appears on television. The word "fuck" and its variations appear in the film approximately 210 times during the running time, or about 1.5 times every minute.
Despite its lack of recognition, I highly recommend State of Grace for any New York metrophile or fan of taut crime dramas. The movie was shot on location all over NYC and it's fun to play spot-the-location. The cast is superb. Sean Penn, Robin Wright Penn, Ed Harris, John C. Reilly, and a host of others animate the screen. The real show-stealer, however, is a then-little-known Gary Oldman, whose frenetic drug and alcohol fueled behavior threatens to jump right off the screen.
So why is this a St. Patty's Day recommendation? Without giving too much away, State of Grace is about the Westies, the Irish mob in NYC in the 1980s. The film's climax takes place on St. Patrick's Day as the parade marches down 5th Avenue, when few are aware of the simmering underworld of Irish-American violence that is about to boil over. If this sounds like your kind of genre, search it out. You won't be sorry.
Posted by Lexiphane at March 16, 2007 8:30 PM
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