Watched The Many Saints of Newark. A spinoff movie of the telly show Sopranos. The result is mixed.
The story follows Dickie Moltisanti (Many Saints), dad of Christopher (his actor, Michael Imperioli narrating some of the movie) who had a great impact on Tony while he grew up. I do not think the film really grabs this relationship, spends awfully lot of time on race riots and social justice issues instead. While the 1967 Newark riots really happened, the negro class/race struggle doesn't add any substantial to the story just takes away from the screen time. Since the movie was released in 2021 we can be 100% why this got so much focus.
Nice touch that the teenager, young adult Tony Soprano is played by Michael Gandolfini, son of James who played the role of Tony in the show. His voice helps make it believable, and one conversation with her mother, and his chat with the principal of the school (or whoever) does remind of the performance of his dad in the series, and feels authentic.
All the characters are there, Sal, Paulie, Pussy, the actors doing impressions of the originals, sometimes okay, but sometimes feel a bit forced. The character of Junior feels the most caricature like, which culminates when he suffers an accident breaking his hip while slipping. Did they really needed to recycle that? They could have spent time on creating a real enmity between him and Dickie.
Ofc the family is there, Tony's parents (I think John Bernthal does a good job as his dad, too little screentime tho) and Janice. Even the dog features, which was given away according to the mistress of Johnny (the giving away doesn't in the movie, the dog is there just for a scene). I miss the other Anthony/Tony B (played by Steve Buscemi in the show).
Ray Liotta also features in the movie, now not as a corrupt cop, but a mobster. Twice, he plays a twin.
Not sure if I'd recommend this. Even for those who are fans of The Sopranos, they might find it a sacrilege and offensive. I'm okay-ish with it.