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Special Features
- Audio Commentary with Writer/Producer/Director Raymond De Felitta and Producer/Actor Andy Garcia
- Dinner with the Rizzos
- Deleted Scenes
- Trailer
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
City Island is chock-full of the simple pleasures to be gleaned from a warm, generous, and skillful script, performed with humor and charisma by a talented cast. Vince Rizzo (Andy Garcia, Ocean's Eleven) is a prison guard--or "corrections officer," as he prefers--and has a family full of secrets: his son has some atypical desires and his daughter has been kicked out of school, while his wife Joyce (Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife) is powerfully attracted to the hunky young ex-con on parole that Vince has brought to stay with them. But Vince has some potent secrets of his own, including taking acting classes. He tells Joyce he's playing poker, which leads her to believe he's having an affair--and when she meets his acting partner (Emily Mortimer, Lovely and Amazing), she thinks her fears are confirmed. This plot could easily have been melodramatic or sentimental, but thanks to the relaxed and confident guiding hand of writer-director Raymond De Felitta and the grounded, unfussy performances of the actors, City Island is engaging and thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish. --Bret Fetzer
Product Description
Vince Rizzo (Andy Garcia) is a lifelong resident of the tiny, tradition-steeped Bronx enclave of City Island. A family man who makes his living as a corrections officer, Vince longs to become an actor. Ashamed to admit his aspirations to his family, Vince would rather let his fiery wife Joyce (Julianna Margulies) believe his weekly poker games are a cover for an extramarital affair than admit he’s secretly taking acting classes in Manhattan. When Vince is asked to reveal his biggest secret in class, he inadvertently sets off a chaotic chain of events that turns his mundane suburban life upside down. Winner of the Audience Award at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival, City Island spins a web of misrepresentations, misinterpretations and misunderstandings into a smart and charming comedy about a family that stops at nothing to avoid the truth.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
38 of 42 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
It sounds glib to call Raymond De Felitta's "City Island" this year's "Little Miss Sunshine," yet the comparison is apt. Both films depict dysfunctional families nearing collapse, and both are blessed with razor-sharp screenplays and ensemble casts that are wonderfully, hilariously perfect. Each member of the cast (especially top-billed Andy Garcia) gives an Oscar-worthy performance, and all will be robbed if they don't win the Screen Actors Guild Best Ensemble Cast Award next year.
The eponymous "City Island" is a small community just off the shoreline of the Bronx, officially part of that borough but with a small-town charm all its own. As Molly Charlesworth (Emily Mortimer), one of the film's characters, declares, "It's a cross between New England and Washington Heights!" Vince Rizzo (Andy Garcia) is a "clamdigger" (a lifelong resident of City Island), as opposed to a "mussel-sucker" (someone who moves to City Island, or one of those very rare natives who moves away). Vince works as a prison guard (though he prefers the term "corrections officer"), but that job doesn't seem to satisfy him these days. His wife Joyce (Julianna Margulies), daughter Vivian (Dominik Garcia-Lorido) and son Vince Jr. (Ezra Miller) wonder why Vince has a "poker game" almost every night, and also why he's brought paroled convict Tony Nardella (Steven Strait) home to live with them. The other Rizzos, meanwhile, are harboring secrets of their own...
To reveal any more of the plot would be sabotage. Let's just say the bickering of the Rizzo family reaches critical mass, with catharsis to follow. In any case, you fall in love with all the characters, and although you might be a little leery of some of the things they do, you'd still be happy to have them all over for your Sunday barbeque. "City Island" is a funny, charming, touching must-see.
The eponymous "City Island" is a small community just off the shoreline of the Bronx, officially part of that borough but with a small-town charm all its own. As Molly Charlesworth (Emily Mortimer), one of the film's characters, declares, "It's a cross between New England and Washington Heights!" Vince Rizzo (Andy Garcia) is a "clamdigger" (a lifelong resident of City Island), as opposed to a "mussel-sucker" (someone who moves to City Island, or one of those very rare natives who moves away). Vince works as a prison guard (though he prefers the term "corrections officer"), but that job doesn't seem to satisfy him these days. His wife Joyce (Julianna Margulies), daughter Vivian (Dominik Garcia-Lorido) and son Vince Jr. (Ezra Miller) wonder why Vince has a "poker game" almost every night, and also why he's brought paroled convict Tony Nardella (Steven Strait) home to live with them. The other Rizzos, meanwhile, are harboring secrets of their own...
To reveal any more of the plot would be sabotage. Let's just say the bickering of the Rizzo family reaches critical mass, with catharsis to follow. In any case, you fall in love with all the characters, and although you might be a little leery of some of the things they do, you'd still be happy to have them all over for your Sunday barbeque. "City Island" is a funny, charming, touching must-see.
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Vine™ Review
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I think that it's become my mantra--"quirk is the curse of independent cinema." In an effort to be cutesy and/or clever, films have been systematically stripping away genuine warmth and humor by presenting character types and sitcom contrivances instead of mining what is really funny in our everyday foibles. It becomes a fine balancing act, then, because a good quirky film can be both hysterical and touch your heartstrings. However, one that goes over the top can be painfully unreal and hard to sit through. And, in my opinion, there is very little middle ground. So it is with some trepidation that I picked up "City Island," a family comedy that promised to explore the eccentricities (code word for quirk) and secrets in the working class Rizzo clan. And, in a pleasant surprise, here the quirk works!
Headlined by Andy Garcia and Julianna Margulies, "City Island" follows the boisterous Rizzo family as it navigates its way through enough secrets and deceptions to fuel several movies. Everyone is lying to everyone else! Garcia has a "secret" love child who is a convict, Margulies suspect him of cheating when he's "secretly" taking acting classes, their son has a "secret" fetish, their daughter has a "secret" job, and everyone "secretly" smokes--heck even Garcia's acting partner (Emily Mortimer) has a big "secret." That's a lot of secrets and leads to a lot of confrontation for one movie. But inexplicably, "City Island" and its immensely likable cast juggle these story lines like pros. The set-up is genuinely funny and the big revelations strike just the right note between hilarity and warmth.
Garcia is a hoot through-out, but credit must be given to the entire cast. Mortimer, in a role that might have been a disaster, provides genuine intelligence and pathos. Ezra Miller, as the son, is spot on hilarious--especially in the film's first half. And Steven Strait, as the love child con, is a revelation as the voice of reason within the madness! Writer/Director Raymond De Felitta has taken my worst nightmare and turned in one of the more effortlessly enjoyable films I've seen in a while. Slight, but very funny, "City Island" is a definite recommendation. KGHarris 9/10.
Headlined by Andy Garcia and Julianna Margulies, "City Island" follows the boisterous Rizzo family as it navigates its way through enough secrets and deceptions to fuel several movies. Everyone is lying to everyone else! Garcia has a "secret" love child who is a convict, Margulies suspect him of cheating when he's "secretly" taking acting classes, their son has a "secret" fetish, their daughter has a "secret" job, and everyone "secretly" smokes--heck even Garcia's acting partner (Emily Mortimer) has a big "secret." That's a lot of secrets and leads to a lot of confrontation for one movie. But inexplicably, "City Island" and its immensely likable cast juggle these story lines like pros. The set-up is genuinely funny and the big revelations strike just the right note between hilarity and warmth.
Garcia is a hoot through-out, but credit must be given to the entire cast. Mortimer, in a role that might have been a disaster, provides genuine intelligence and pathos. Ezra Miller, as the son, is spot on hilarious--especially in the film's first half. And Steven Strait, as the love child con, is a revelation as the voice of reason within the madness! Writer/Director Raymond De Felitta has taken my worst nightmare and turned in one of the more effortlessly enjoyable films I've seen in a while. Slight, but very funny, "City Island" is a definite recommendation. KGHarris 9/10.
25 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Reading - and the movies - offer the opportunity to explore new and unusual places, some of them not far from home. Thus, the movie "City Island" introduced me to a small fishing village of that name in, the Bronx, New York, of all places. City Island is a quaint close-knit fishing village of about 4000 people on the west end of Long Island Sound. This movie, which won the audience award at the Tribecca Film Festival in 2009, is set and was filmed in City Island. It is a town of old homes, beaches, bridges, fishing vessels, and the water. Residents of City Island distinguish between "Mussel Suckers" - the larger part of the community born outside the community and "Clam Diggers" those residents who grew up in City Island. This distinction is carried over into the movie.
The story itself might have happened anywhere, but it gains strength by the setting in a small urban area where people seemingly know their neighbors. The movie tells of the secrets that people hold from those closest to them and of the difficulties of opening up. The main character is the Rizzo family. Vincent Rizzo, played by Andy Garcia who also produced the movie is a middle-aged corrections office (he resents the term "prison guard") who harbors dreams of being an actor. He attends acting school one evening a week and, to avoid embarrassment, tells his disbelieving wife that he is out for a poker night. A woman student at the acting school with secrets of her own encourages Vince who begins as an imitator of Marlon Brando and learns to act in his own person and character. Against odds, newcomer Vince auditions for a tough-guy part in a movie by Scorsese.
Vince's hard-bitten wife, Joyce, (Juliana Margulies) feels lonely and frustrated as she feels the passion between Vincent and herself has died. She thinks Vince is having an affair during his "poker night" and of course thinks the worst when she meets Vince's acting companion. The couple have two children, Vivian (Dominik Garcia-Lorido) who unknown to her family has dropped out of college and is working as a stripper in the hope of returning to school and high school student Vince, Jr. (Ezra Miller). Ezra is strongly attracted to big beautiful women (BBWs), including his neighbor who has a BBW cam site and a young girl in his high school class who at the outset spurns him. It was endearing and refreshing to see a story of men who are attracted to large women. Vince Rizzo also has a secret in that before his marriage to Joyce he fathered a child and then left the mother. The son he had never met, Tony, (Steven Sttrait) winds up in prison. Without revealing his identity, Vince brings Tony into his home. The movie features a long denouement in which the family, and other associated characters level with each other and learn who they themselves, and the other people, each are.
City Island is an entertaining well-acted movie about the difficulty of knowing self and others. In an unpretentious way, it gets inside the feelings and dreams of its characters. But the movie also taught me about a place I hadn't seen or heard of before and made it come to life. I loved seeing it, and I found getting to know City Island the place the main attraction of this movie.
Robin Friedman
The story itself might have happened anywhere, but it gains strength by the setting in a small urban area where people seemingly know their neighbors. The movie tells of the secrets that people hold from those closest to them and of the difficulties of opening up. The main character is the Rizzo family. Vincent Rizzo, played by Andy Garcia who also produced the movie is a middle-aged corrections office (he resents the term "prison guard") who harbors dreams of being an actor. He attends acting school one evening a week and, to avoid embarrassment, tells his disbelieving wife that he is out for a poker night. A woman student at the acting school with secrets of her own encourages Vince who begins as an imitator of Marlon Brando and learns to act in his own person and character. Against odds, newcomer Vince auditions for a tough-guy part in a movie by Scorsese.
Vince's hard-bitten wife, Joyce, (Juliana Margulies) feels lonely and frustrated as she feels the passion between Vincent and herself has died. She thinks Vince is having an affair during his "poker night" and of course thinks the worst when she meets Vince's acting companion. The couple have two children, Vivian (Dominik Garcia-Lorido) who unknown to her family has dropped out of college and is working as a stripper in the hope of returning to school and high school student Vince, Jr. (Ezra Miller). Ezra is strongly attracted to big beautiful women (BBWs), including his neighbor who has a BBW cam site and a young girl in his high school class who at the outset spurns him. It was endearing and refreshing to see a story of men who are attracted to large women. Vince Rizzo also has a secret in that before his marriage to Joyce he fathered a child and then left the mother. The son he had never met, Tony, (Steven Sttrait) winds up in prison. Without revealing his identity, Vince brings Tony into his home. The movie features a long denouement in which the family, and other associated characters level with each other and learn who they themselves, and the other people, each are.
City Island is an entertaining well-acted movie about the difficulty of knowing self and others. In an unpretentious way, it gets inside the feelings and dreams of its characters. But the movie also taught me about a place I hadn't seen or heard of before and made it come to life. I loved seeing it, and I found getting to know City Island the place the main attraction of this movie.
Robin Friedman
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
GREAT Movie!
I'm surprised that my favorite Andy Garcia movies are perhaps the ones least talked about. This is definitely one of his best and a humble, insecure character that we rarely see... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Twila Waugh
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fun!
It was entertaining. Steve Strait is hot with a nice body. Nice chemistry of the whole cast. I would recommend this to anyone.
Published 1 month ago by RCA78
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Movie
Product was delivered on time and was a gift. Great movie too! Andy Garcia pleases a great role in this movie as a corrections officer who wants to be an actor.
Published 1 month ago by Debgoddess
5.0 out of 5 stars
Grea Movie
I had seen a preview for this movie / DVD on another movie DVD that we had purchased, and it looked like it would be a great movie. Read more
Published 1 month ago by gabrielalice68
1.0 out of 5 stars
Could not stream this movie
No idea why this movie would not play! my computer is fine and plays everything on Netflix. AND I COULDN'T GET MY MONEY BACK. Amazon, come on, this is not like you!
Published 1 month ago by shalene
3.0 out of 5 stars
Some funny parts
OK movie, but a bit predictable. Downstream quality was good. This movie was my wife's choice and she enjoyed it more than I did.
Published 2 months ago by Shep
4.0 out of 5 stars
GREAT film, so-so Dolby sound
The movie itself gets 5 stars all the way. It's incredibly funny and well acted. The minus one star is for the sound. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Marianne
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unique film with great characters
I've seen this movie three times now and laugh out loud each time. The characters are unique, hilarious and well-acted across the board.
Published 2 months ago by nancy
3.0 out of 5 stars
Oh Andy. You could've done better
I bought this movie because I love Andy Garcia. I think he keeps playing the same kind of character. Movie was ok. The movie was delivered quickly and undamaged.
Published 2 months ago by Sandra F. Montalvo
5.0 out of 5 stars
Slow start, but well worth watching
Admittedly it got off to a slow start, but it ended up being well worth watching. Andy Garcia gave a wonderful performance and he exhibited many poignant moments. Read more
Published 3 months ago by A voracious reader
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