Gravesend

A poor rating for a cutting edge, innovative, creative crime drama, brilliantly painting a portrait of the nature of friendship and community? Isn't this the IMDb? Aren't we supposed to like, nay LOVE, movies? This film is Mean Streets for the Tarantino generation, with more balls than a dozen Hollywood movies. Stabile deserves to be up there with those other indie directors of the 90's. but maybe he has probably held fast to his beliefs and was not prepared to fall in the sewer of self-indulgent, bloated garbage that has passed for the 90's indie crowd's subsequent output. This movie should be seen by all aspiring directors of what can be done on a shoestring budget if you possess intelligence.

This is good work. I heard that Salvatore Stabile didn't have a lot of money to put the project together. Also, I heard that the actors worked for free. That is true dedication to a project. I salute the cast for working with the director. A friend of mine gave me a copy of the soundtrack. This is what it all boils down to. There are no expensive special effects or high price actors. This is what America needs, A good cast that asks what they can do for the movie, instead of what a movie can do for them.

Being a 16 year old "kid" and an aspiring filmmaker, I felt the need to add a comment about this movie. Despite most people who would say this movie is a waste of time, poorly acted, directed, filmed and it either dragging on, being too slow etc. I've always been able to appreciate the work behind making a movie, no matter how bad it is. That is why I rate Salvatore Stabile highly on his first film. The fact that he was 19-23 (not sure which exactly) years old and the supposed budget of $5000 (Although I highly doubt it) is really inspiring. Shot in doco-style camera work with 16mm film it really has a grittyness to it which really adds character to a movie like this. It's so un-hollywood, maybe I just have thing for amateur, low budget films but a film like this is truly something to proud of for Salvatore Stabile. I can understand that it may not be everybody's cup of tea but it is a great film, and deserves to be appreciated. God on you Sal, keep up the good work.

I love films like this. Pacy, lean and funny. It will no doubt draw fire for being a bit Scorcese-esque, and admittedly, the character Zane owes a lot to De Niro in Mean Streets, but in fact the film actually resembles L'Haine a lot more. The difficult customer scene is very funny, and the whole thing was neatly finished. Great stuff.

Gravesend takes place in a beaten down Brooklyn neighborhood near Coney Island. Immediately, it is clear that the young writer/director of this film takes all his energy and inspiration for his characters out of the streets for this film, and does so convincingly. Much of this films' buzz centered around the fact that the director was young and made the film at a very low-budget, adding to this films rough urban flavor. Many critics deplored the film because of its' repeatative non-stop pointless fights among the friends, however I believe they were an essential part of the film. We learn to dislike most of the characters, often glad that their lives aren't ours, and at times the dialog can be suprisingly humorous given the cynical nature of this film. Tony Tucci alone is reason enough to see this movie, playing a violent, rough, worthless twenty-something who is neither a good friend, good person, and more or less continually fails at what he does throughout the coarse of the night. With a better written plot and storyline, this film could have done what Mean Streets did for Martin Scorecese for this young director, but unfortunately falls short. However, to anyone interested in film and film making, highly recommended.