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WANNABES Send This Review to a Friend
Writer, co-director, producer and star William DeMeo proves that he has talent to spare with "Wannabees," a pulsating, unusual crime drama about wannabe Brooklyn brothers. The film is sometimes funny, sometimes violent but always well-acted, entertaining and involving.
Filmmaker Charles A. Addessi, who also co-produced along with DeMeo and Nicole Craig, shares director billing with DeMeo, who has the motivating role of Angelo, a frustrated nobody who thinks he can become somebody by figuring out ways to make money illegally and thereby gain the stature of the mobsters he sees all around him. Why struggle along working in a restaurant when there are big bucks to be made by running a bookie operation? His younger brother Paulie, less aggressively portrayed by Conor Dubin, is skeptical but impressionable enough to go along with Angelo, as do two of their restless pals, Dom (John Palumbo) and Pete (Daniel Margotta).
In a way this is a coming of age story, as the bothers seem never to have grown up. They are over-grown kids who still play stickball in the streets and are lured by illusions that big time means walking around with dough and the prestige that comes with being a powerful local hood, like the Mafia big-shot Santo (Joe Viterelli). Santo has a boorish son named Vinny (Joseph D'Onofrio), who thinks he can act tough merely because of who he is. Vinny is a nasty piece of work and resents the liking his father takes to Angelo.
"Wannabes" is a cautionary tale of dreams gone awry. There is something pathetic and even funny about the characters, unlikely ever amount to much. What gives the film its strength is the realism of the acting, the accuracy of the dialogue and the Brooklyn atmosphere, as well as the nervy but almost casual manner in which these misfits with a skewed sense of values navigate. The film starts with off-putting violence, then slides into the story of how the brothers maneuver into their world of crime and what happens to them.
There are some amusing scenes, including Angelo vengefully spiking Vinny's soft drink with urine. There are also good character portrayals, particularly by Viterelli and by Raymond Serra as Uncle Tommy, to whom the brothers go for help to extricate themselves from trouble. Always lurking is the potential for violence.
"Wannabes" may make you think of other stories about guys in rough neighborhoods but this one stands on its own, thanks to the particular vision of its independent creators and their effort to get it just right. You can spot the cliches but you can also spot the truths. A Pinnacle Filmworks release.
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