THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK
CRIME DRAMA Friday, 12.40pm & 8pm, Sky Premiere 4
THIS BLISTERING PREQUEL to the groundbreaking TV show The
Sopranos (which ran from 19992007) is everything fans want.
The story covers the mid-1960s to early-1970s with Tony Soprano still at school (well, when he’s not grifting). He dreams of playing in the NFL and clearly soaks up his older relatives’ actions. He’s played by William Ludwig then Michael Gandolfini – son of the late James (so memorable, of course, as
Tony in the TV series).
With Tony’s father (Jon Bernthal) in jail and his mother (Vera Farmiga) at her wits’ end, the spotlight falls on Dickie Moltisanti (Alessandro Nivola), the man young Tony looks up to. The plot kicks in with Dickie’s violent father Aldo ‘Hollywood Dick’ Moltisanti (Ray Liotta) returning from Italy.
In a grasp for power, the volatile Dickie is horrifying in his actions. The narrative dovetails with real life as the 1967 Newark Race Riots erupt. Racial tensions between the Italian-american and African-american communities boil over, symbolised by Dickie’s conflict with Harold Mcbrayer (Leslie Odom Jr), a hired gun entwined in Dickie’s personal life.
Co-scripted by The Sopranos’ creator David Chase and Lawrence Konner (who penned a number of episodes), it’s a highly compelling origin story. Nivola and Liotta are standouts in a firstrate cast, while younger versions of familiar characters – Uncle Junior (Corey Stoll), Silvio Dante (John Magaro) and Big Pussy (Samson Moeakiola) – weave in and out of a story that simmers for the first hour, before escalating, thrillingly, in the final stages.
A slightly bizarre idea that sees the film narrated from the grave by Christopher (Michael Imperioli) doesn’t entirely work. But, for the most part, director Alan Taylor hardly puts a foot wrong, recapturing the show’s spirit and deftly establishing the world of violence and easy money that will ultimately sway Tony. JM 2021,15,120MIN
ALESSANDRO NIVOLA heads the cast in this violent, gripping, darkly funny and deeply human prequel to The Sopranos