Laws of Gravity

I've heard this compared to Scorsese's "Mean Streets", but the crime and situations depicted are much more low-key than that film. This is really unique. A couple of incredibly minor Brooklyn thieves, one's wife, the other's girlfriend, and their local bottom-feeder milieu, futzing around interacting with the locals and just squeaking by. That's about the whole film, give or take a subplot about a stash of guns that our 'heroes' come into and try to sell. But it's not about plot so much, it's a character study, and the performances are incredible, so the characters stick. The two leads are both great, although Adam Trese has the gift of a part as the young psychotic/Jerry Lewis type. Edie Falco (Tony Soprano's wife in "The Sopranos") has an unusually great role as written, in the sense that they don't write too many parts as varied and interesting as this for women to play, particularly in crime-related movies. But what she does with it is pretty astonishing. It's a great performance. That director has one unusual eye for picturesque composition of unlikely subject material too. "Laws of Gravity" is an uncommonly good movie. Its dialogue-ear for humour in banal minutiae has a smell of the Tarantinos, but this pre-dated "Reservoir Dogs".

It's not a Means Streets rip-off. It's a decent, low budget movie with some fine acting, and some realistic dialogue. These characters are not brain surgeons, they are rough, inarticulate people who live a hard life. Any predictability comes from the fact that only the inevitable can happen to people such as these. The film captures the feel of a Brooklyn neighborhood well. What appears to be Williamsburg before it became trendy. This movie made me feel I was watching what happens when a bunch of good, no-frills actors spend time together producing a very realistic and gritty ensemble piece. Check it out for yourselves.

Back when "Independent" movies were exploding in the early 90s this little gem came out. Full disclosure, I'm a born, raised & still here native NYC boy & I knew these kinds of people. People in other reviews wonder about where these characters are from? They're from everywhere & this was the real deal back in early 90s. This is before Williamsburg & Greenpoint areas of Bklyn exploded & became gentrified 'beautiful' neighborhoods. Nick Gomez created this movie that kinda spans just a few days, that are probably like many other days in these characters' lives. Edie Falco, Paul Schultze, Peter Greene all before their big roles in the Sopranos, Nurse Jackie & Pulp Fiction for P. Greene ("Bring out the Gimp...Zed's dead baby, Zed's dead.)

Back in the early 90s, Falco & Schultze were working as waiters & bartender at my friend's bar (for real, though not for much longer obviously). Indie movie world was bursting and Nick Gomez was the hot young new director after this movie. I found it totally by chance on some cable system in NJ & showed it to my 20 yr old son. Not sure he appreciated & liked it as much as I did, but I loved the Scorsese/Cassavettes style of exploring the low gritty lives of struggling characters banging their heads against the 'mean streets' of their environment. There's not a load of action in this movie but as other reviewers noted, it feels like your a fly on the wall in these characters' lives for a few days. And for someone who's from this neighborhood, everything feels real, legit & authentic, warts & all. I totally recommend it this to anyone curious about the Indie movie world of early 90s & gritty pre-gentrified Bklyn. Just be warned it's not an action movie but it's xclnt, in my humble opinion...Enjoy.

One of the things that bugs me about indie film-making is that the wrong people make it to step two. Nick Gomez surely should have been able to do more work than "Illtown" and "New Jersey Drive" after finishing this well-crafted, if choppy, urban tale. I liked "New Jersey Drive" a lot, so I guess Nick's getting his recognition through "The Sopranos" at the moment. And why is Mr. Green still only playing psychos and tiny little bit parts, apart from his brilliant work in "Clean Shaven"? At least Adam Trese went on to "Palookaville"!

Ok, so that's more of a rant than a review, and I'll cut to the chase:

If you liked "Bottle Rocket", "Palookaville", or "A Bronx Tale", see this film.

It's an old story, but I'll tell it again:

Guys from bad neighborhoods, against whom the deck is pretty well stacked, get some better-than-usual goods to sell. And sell them they must, under less than ideal circumstances, leading to all sorts of fun and frolic, in a very non-comedic sense. Greene, Trese, Falco, and Schulze stand out. Saul Stein is quite creepy as the face of the "new mob".

This sort of film appeals to me more in its American genre than the current British versions of this story ("London Kills Me", "Lock, Stock", "Twin Town", and "Trainspotting") as the Scots/Welsh/Home Counties vision of petty crime has a heavily injected fantasy slant absent in four American flix cited in my discussion.

Also, these petty-street-crime films are probably (with the exception of John Sayles) one of the few windows into American poverty available in US film right now. The scene in "Laws of Gravity" between minor criminal Frankie and Greene's screen spouse Denise (Edie Falco) on the nature of life and work is brilliant.

lordwhorfin says, go ye forth and rent.

I'm not going to sit here and tell you this long drawn out synopsis about this masterpiece of a film. But, I'm not the one to leave people in the dark, so it'll be a brief synopsis.

Johnny, the main character gets canned in the slammer over some petty charge. His best friend , and the wiser, sells guns that belong to a hot-head named Frankie, this pays Johnny's bail. Frankie, Johnny's best friend (forgot character's name), and Johnny, were once this entrusting ghettoized circle of friends, now Frankie's peeved at the both of them for running guns and blowing the profits for Johnny's well-being. This begins a volatile pattern of street bravado, and someone will definitely find themselves in a unfortunate disposition.

Brilliant acting, you can't even call it acting, call it, hanging on the block with your crew. These guys are so natural and effortless. The realism and pace of this film is why cinema buffs find a reason to get up mornings.