Mafia Kid

I have been an advocate of this movie since it came out. It is charming and endearing. Sasha Mitchell exudes a natural warmth that grabs your attention and leaves you smiling. The movie is well written, well acted and well produced. On its own terms, this is an entertainement that gives much pleasure which lingers long after you've seen it. It is well worth renting.

I grew up in Brooklyn. I knew Spike and his friends. Their names and faces were different, but their lives were the same. If you treat this movie as a political statement you will be offended. If you treat this movie as entertainment you'll suffer. But if you treat this movie as a sociological exercise, you will be enlightened. No movie made before or since, has captured the essence of Brooklyn so effectively. Story, plot progression, and emotive content are deliberately sacrificed to the end of painting a realistic portrait of both the subjects and their neighborhood. At the film's conclusion, the characters, like their environs, develop little. Such is Brooklyn.

Unlike the majority of my fellow reviewers, I really like this movie and am proud to say I own a copy. It's very funny in part and everyone gives a good performance. Even Geraldine Smith is hysterical. Whoever did the casting did a great job.

This is one strange movie, and that's why I love it so much. The actors overact, the lead actor is a jerk, his Portuguese sidekick is a riot, and the last scene is strangely touching and uplifting. Oh, and the dialogue has to be heard to be believed. No, this is no Godfather, but I doubt that that was Paul Morrissey's intention. If you don't take it too seriously, you're in for one strange, fun viewing. Oh, and the Spanish pop music soundtrack by Coati Mundi is just great! I'm not joking, either. . . Gus Van Sant should have remade this instead of Psycho.

This is an odd movie. The script and acting are toned-down John Waters, the plot structure is no more than it has to be (and sometimes not even that), but the look of the film, especially the composition of shots, is beautiful, careful, and coldly objective. Morrissey has a unique eye, demonstrated on the cheap in "Trash" and displayed here in surreal, over-saturated color.