Jared McMillan // Film Critic
Rated R, 106 minutes.
Director: Ray Romano
Cast: Ray Romano, Laurie Metcalf, Jacob Ward, Jennifer Esposito, Sadie Stanley, Sebastian Maniscalco, P.J. Byrne, Karen Lynn Gorney and Geoffrey Owens
As parents, it’s hard to put into words how much children represent the future. Not just their future, but the future of the parental self. The time and effort, the investment in making sure what we’re doing for them is going to help them become better people to create their own opportunities in this world. It’s a lot of pressure trying to manage something as pure as another life that you’ve created, while also managing the ongoing life you yourself have. SOMEWHERE IN QUEENS, the directorial debut from Ray Romano, is a microcosm of that pressure, focusing on parents wanting the best for their son without letting themselves get in the way.
Leo (Romano) and Angela (Laurie Metcalf) have pretty much settled into life, parents to a high school senior named Matthew, a.k.a. Sticks (Jacob Ward), an up-and-coming basketball player. Leo works in the family business, a residential construction company started by his father Pops (Tony Lo Bianco) and managed by his brother (Sebastian Maniscalco), while Angela takes care of the house and family. Sticks’ plan after high school is to work and learn the family business, like his dad and uncle before him. The story really starts to take hold at Sticks’ final game, where we see Leo is somewhat popular thanks to Sticks’ celebrity as a player. Here, he gets a chant from the rowdy students in the stands, here he has parents gushing over Sticks, which makes him feel like his life has more purpose now.
It’s after the game that Leo and Angela find out two things about Sticks that will converge and test their capacity as parents. For Leo, it’s hearing from a scout that Sticks could get a scholarship and play ball in college; for Angela, it’s finding out Sticks has a girlfriend named Dani (Sadie Stanley) that she’s never heard of. Sticks gets a call from Drexel University that a spot opened, and he gets the chance to try out for the team. But when Dani breaks up with Sticks, Leo sees the opportunity start to slip away and bribes her to stay with him, pretending to be his girlfriend until he has his tryout. Will the end justify the means or is it just a house of cards waiting to fall for the Russos?
SOMEWHERE IN QUEENS works best when it leans into its identity outside of plot points. The humor is revealed through character traits rather than forced dialogue, which helps the more sincere and dramatic moments to generate more empathy in the characters. Romano does well behind the camera to have the lens mirror the emotions of his characters. Close-ups on Leo at the most vulnerable, creating shots to show gestures that will create better understanding of characters. Also, he made sure to get an actor in Ward that can actually play basketball to not only give Sticks authenticity, but also not hamper the details in editing.
The parents bribing someone/doing something to make sure their kid is good isn’t new, but when Leo reveals Sticks’ history with anxiety while pleading with Dani, it gives the gesture a way to elevate itself over the generic. Angela’s fears of Sticks getting hurt by Dani is also a typical mom characteristic, but then the story reveals she’s projecting her own fears after battling breast cancer.
That sort of projection is something all parents can relate to, both good and bad, and SOMEWHERE IN QUEENS shows how projecting your hopes and fears onto your children can backfire, even if it comes from a good place. The dynamic contrast between the stoic Leo and brash Angela flips when they have a better view of Sticks’ future, whether as a basketball player or in a relationship, especially Leo. He opens up his personality more, while Angela gets more defensive. It’s Romano’s most complicated work as an actor, really using facial expressions to communicate Leo to the audience, and Metcalf steals the show balancing the ferocity of a mother and the inner fragility Angela feels post-cancer.
SOMEWHERE IN QUEENS loses some of its luster in the third act as Leo’s plan comes to a head and Sticks finds out the truth, but its point isn’t to avoid the messiness of being a parent. It’s about not avoiding the journey just to get to the end. Like Miles Davis said, “It’s not the notes you play, but the notes you don’t play.” This is even more evident in the film’s ending, as Leo and Angela realize the man Sticks is becoming. He doesn’t get there the way they thought he would, but the result is more than they could’ve hoped for.
Grade: B-
SOMEWHERE IN QUEENS is now playing in theaters.
