Courtesy New Line Cinema / HBO Films
Like the Breaking Bad movie El Camino before it, HBO’s The Many Saints of Newark doles out fan service crumbs for an already-over television show with the promise of fleshing out beloved characters’ stories. This could have meant meaningful writing and some patched-up holes, but, like the Breaking Bad movie, it mostly tarnishes a legacy for Sopranos alums and newcomers alike. Can we or should we revisit the periphery of things once held in the highest esteem, or is there no good way of coming back to something that already felt pretty perfect the first time around?
Turns out it’s the second one, and whereas the marketing for David Chase’s new film promised insight into how Tony Soprano (one of the greatest characters of all time) came to be the powerful New Jersey mobster with whom we all fell in love/hate more than 20 years ago, what we really get is the backstory to questions either never asked or long forgotten by all but the most dedicated Sopranos fans.
Do we see a young Tony Soprano’s place within a burgeoning organized crime empire? Sure. Does it feel like it matters? Hardly. Instead, The Many Saints of Newark focuses more on his uncle, Dickie Moltisanti (Alessandro Nivola), a heretofore unseen force and father of Michael Imperioli’s Christopher from the original series, who narrates this film, but only sometimes, weirdly. Anyway, what we already knew about Dickie was minimal: Tony loved him, Christopher didn’t know him and somehow, his actions in the ‘60s and ‘70s still had ramifications when the show kicked off in 1999. Here, we learn he was a bit of a bastard as shaped by things like his dad, Hollywood Dick Moltisanti (Ray Liotta, who also plays his own twin for some reason), and a torrid affair with his one-time stepmother Giuseppina (Michela De Rossi). Make your Oedipus jokes now, folks.
Teenage Tony (Michael Gandolfini—son of James, and someone with more than a passing resemblance to his father) is there, yeah, but mostly as a sounding board to the violence, crime and sexual mores of the family. Present also are any number of younger versions of Sopranos faves like Paulie Walnuts, Big Pussy and Silvio, though their impacts are often limited to hokey reminders of later antics (Silvio sure is weird about his hair, for example); Tony’s dad Johnny Soprano (Jon Bernthal) exists here, but not for any compelling reasons, but Vera Farmiga as Livia Soprano...now that’s something special and, as rarely happens, she nails the earlier version of Nancy Marchalnd’s easily maligned character. Corey Stoll as young Uncle Junior feels pointless.
Tony, meanwhile, sees it all and even does some minor mobby things like running numbers at his Catholic school; “Hey, Carmella—do you got a quarter?” at a later payphone scene sure reminds us that he’ll marry her one day (love you, Edie Falco!!!!!).
Once we get beyond scenes that amount to “No one will ever drive your auto-mo-car, Henry Ford,” what’s left is a fairly tame movie about a messed up family and maybe something about how pride is weird and guns don’t solve a whole lot of problems. Even Leslie Odom Jr. (Hamilton) can’t elevate the goings on as one-time Moltisanti ally Harold—and one particularly violent scene almost makes Marathon Man’s dental stuff seem pleasant.
Toss in a bunch of Italian guys going “Ohhh!” and you get the gist. Honestly, it feels like they’re gearing up for a sequel film if enough folks get behind The Many Saints of Newark, but the young Gandolfini simply doesn’t have the gravitas his pop did. Longtime fans will watch out of curiosity, and everyone else will keep meaning to pop it on, but never actually get there.
6
+Shot beautifully; Vera Farmiga
-Minimal Tony; answers questions easily forgotten long ago
The Many Saints of Newark
Directed by Alan Taylor
With Nivola, Gandolfini, Liotta, Farmiga and De Rossi
Violet Crown, HBO Max, R, 120 min.
