No disrespect to Life on Mars or Detroit 187 or those classy to a fault ads for 1800 Tequila but we all know that his work on The Sopranos as Christopher Moltisanti will be what eventually ends up on Michael Imperioli’s tombstone. Here he channels the lifelong dream Christopher had to become a screenwriter by releasing The Hungry Ghosts, the first film to be written and directed by him (he shares a co-writer credit on Summer of Sam and wrote a few episodes of The Sopranos). And while it is a near impossibility to fully separate this project from the earlier more famous one you would be well advised to because other than a few famous themes and faces this dud, if given the opportunity, could tarnish your memory of that earlier masterpiece. It has the distinct look of an amateurish, first time around the bend effort which is made even worse by the fact that he has aimed higher than he should have and has set out to make a modern day homage (I guess) to the likes of Short Cuts and Magnolia. Only where those brilliant works wormed their way into your mind and under your skin this one is only selling nostalgia and a decidedly flat story arc.
The nostalgia shows up in the form of Steve Schirripa (you may know him better as Bobby Bacala) who plays Frank an overweight, rundown radio host who has to rely on a certain white powder to help him through the late-night shifts. He has an ex-wife who happens to be bat shit crazy (played by fellow Sopranos alum Sharon Angela) and a fractured relationship with his son that he is trying to fix via therapy. One day during an especially intense trip to the shrink’s office his son high tails it out of there and hits the mean streets of Manhattan looking for some rebellion. He quickly ends up being “befriended” by the sketchiest of couples, a pill popping freak show duo who are all too eager to usher him back to their apartment. There it becomes increasingly evident that they are into him for reasons other than intellectual stimulation. They get him all liquored up and let the video camera roll as the misses begins to exert her feminine charms on the boy. Meanwhile Sharon, the ex-wife, is having one of those full blown panic attacks that mothers are so good at and Frank is struggling to make it through yet another on-air shift.
That storyline remains crisp throughout as Imperioli seems to have that one aspect of his film under control. His downfall is in the addition of other, far less engrossing, characters who really don’t carry their own weight. We follow a recently broken up couple, Gus (Nick Sandow) and Nadia (Aunjanue Ellis) as they go their separate ways and also try and find their way through a suddenly much lonelier New York. There are moments worth savoring such as a soapy exchange on a stoop between Nadia and the woman who lives there. The end of the fight is goofy and uncalled for but also funny and alive, and even though that little vignette does nothing to advance the plot as a whole it’s still a rare treat here to see something actually buzz. Gus is a recovering alcoholic and his entire state of being seems to revolve around whether he should trade in his 90 days clean chip for a cold one. There is also a terribly unfortunate scene that tries to stir up some of that old man poop humor but instead only manages to repulse. My sense is that Imperioli’s heart was into the lost child plotline but, either to flesh out and add length to his film or to ramp up the degree of difficulty, he pumped in these other threads and then tried to delicately interweave them with one another.
I’ll give nothing away by saying that everything builds towards a large, bloated climax that gives us closure while also reminding us that tomorrow is indeed another day and things really aren’t going to get better for these people any time soon. I did get something of a contact high in those final few minutes but I figure that is mainly because 50% of what came before involved drunken people sitting around philosophizing. There are signs of promise for his future as a filmmaker; texturally he has a good thing going as the gritty, dreamlike nature of New York is captured and was reminiscent of last year’s New York I Love You. There’s an obsession with substance abuse at work here that feels gratuitous but his knack for titillating and disgusting with shots of urban sex should be applauded. Characters flirt with death which leads to enlightenment but nobody is radically changed. No frogs fall from the sky and nobody learns an important lesson about racism. It’s kind of boring in a way but also kind of honorable.
The Hungry Ghosts is at times murky and dusty and the DVD transfer picks up these nuances beautifully. Since the film is new there were no restorations or touching up that needed to be done. It is presented in 1.66:1 widescreen format.
There were no special features present on the review copy I received and there are none listed on the Amazon website either. No extras is better than a pile on crummy ones but it is always nice to have something, at least a theatrical trailer. . .right?
A slog to get through and one that has the potential to depress you to boot. The ambition is to be appreciated but very few things about this movie actually work. Michael Imperioli is an easy guy to root for and I look forward to seeing what else he will share with us creatively in the coming years, but here he drops the ball and gives us something that would have trouble standing next to some student projects.
Virgil Films and Entertainment presents The Hungry Ghosts. Directed by: Michael Imperioli. Starring: Steve Schirripa, Sharon Angela, Nick Sandow, Aunjanue Ellis. Written by: Michael Imperioli. Running time: 104 minutes. Rating: R. Released on DVD: November 2, 2010.
