The Many Saints of Newark (2021)

The Many Saints of Newark (2021)

 

 

3/10

Starring

Alessandro Nivola

Leslie Odom Jr.

Jon Bernthal

Corey Stoll

 

Directed by Alan Taylor

 

This movie is really into itself, busy achieving nothing. It's occupied with unnecessary violence that goes nowhere, and the ending doesn’t matter—nothing spectacular. It's such an ordinary movie that it doesn't deserve to be recommended to anyone. When you make a movie that’s unnecessary, just to please fans, this waste of movie reel is what you get.

They could have called this movie anything else other than the prequel to The Sopranos, and it would still work. That’s because nothing in this movie sheds any light on what you didn’t already know about Tony Soprano, and it doesn’t give any depth to the things you suspected. In fact, Tony Soprano wasn’t even a major character or even a main supporting character in this movie. Yes, his name is mentioned, and we see him hopping around. The only time he becomes a focus in this 120-minute movie is in the last 10 minutes. Then, Chase says there’s a planned sequel about Tony in his twenties (suggesting more focus on him). Well, why not do that movie then? What was the point of this?

From the series, we know there is a strained relationship between Junior and his nephew Tony. In this movie, we see that Junior has always struggled to have a hold on things in the DiMeo crime family. Set in the 1960s and '70s, the movie depicts the humble beginnings of the DiMeo crime family and how they struggled to maintain order during the riots that broke out in the '60s, caused by the maltreatment of black people.

The movie focuses more on the teenage years of Tony, with the young Tony being played by the late James Gandolfini’s (Tony Soprano in the series) son, Michael Gandolfini.

Fans will get to see how Tony related to Dickie Moltisanti, who was the main driving force in Tony’s life. We also get to see how Dickie took charge of things in the DiMeo crime family, the atrocities he committed, and how they played out for the other family members. Tony never talked much about his father in the series. We just know there was a lot of respect from him toward the man. In this movie, we get to see how his father’s criminal dealings influenced Tony’s upbringing.

Unlike the series, where we get to enjoy the intricate dealings of the crime world, here things flash about a lot, lacking that fun.

As time goes on, the more I grow stronger in the resolution that you don’t have to see every movie. Even though you saw the first part, you don’t need to see the second part if the first one was crap. For those who want to see this movie, I advise you not to.