rob the mob
rob the mob
is too cutesy a title for this dark grubby little tale .
raymond de felitta directed the new movie
rob the mob .
( carolyn cole, los angeles… )
looking for movie tickets? enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing rob the mob near you .
michael pitt as tommy and nina arianda as rosie in
rob the mob .
photo credit: millennium entertainment
despite a few hang - ups, rob the mob is a charmingly offbeat crime flick, with two likable and plucky leads .
backstage hollywood:' rob the mob,' about tommy and rosemarie uva, met with resistance because of its mafia - based story. but it gives the mob movie a lighter touch .
rob the mob
skims over the lifted - from - the - headlines exploits of an outlaw couple and gleans a humanist drama steeped in sentimentality .
offbeat crime drama rob the mob hits just the right semi - comic tone to pull off its outlandish, stranger - than - fiction true story .
“he was a kid who was obsessed with the mafia, and she grew up in the neighborhood and knew all those guys, ” says “rob the mob” screenwriter jonathan fernandez .
young lovers tommy (michael pitt) and rosie (nina arianda) team up to steal from gangsters in' rob the mob.' watch the trailer on stack gamer .
will mob boss andy garcia get upset? what can possibly happen? plenty, actually, but en route to reality there' s a sense of reckless adventure, and a sweetness, that makes
rob the mob
a joy .
it' s a story so outlandish that it needs to be served by a combination of drama and comedy, and
rob the mob
finds that balance quite well .
one of the pleasures of rob the mob, director raymond de felitta' s serio - comic crime drama, is watching pitt and arianda as the rambunctious, lovestruck pair who can' t believe the scam they' ve stumbled upon .
by far one of the most fun mob thrillers we' ve seen in some time .
set in the early 1990' s and based on an actual case, the crime thriller rob the mob tells the story of small - time crooks tommy and rosie who, like bonnie and clyde, are partners in crime and in love .
when de felitta couldn' t land a big - name actress to star opposite pitt, it looked as if
rob the mob
was dead in the water .
the project kind of languished ,
de felitta said .
they hit about a dozen joints, including the hawaiian moonlighters in little italy and an unnamed hangout on brooklyn’s 86th street. the couple’s story is now the basis for friday’s “rob the mob, ” starring michael pitt as tommy and nina arianda as rosie .
featuring generous doses of raucous humor as well as a haunting atmosphere of dread as tommy and rosie’s exploits prove increasingly dangerous, rob the mob is a true - crime tale that boasts an uncommon emotional resonance .
of course, part of the excitement of rob the mob is seeing just how far tommy and rosie can get before they' re inevitably caught. in fact, it' s during one specific heist that tommy recovers something truly incriminating from the mob, leading the viewer to wonder if our proverbial bonnie and clyde will actually get away with the whole damn thing .
two young lovers brazenly hold up mob social clubs in this fascinating true - crime tale .
subscribe to trailers: urltoken subscribe to coming soon: urltoken like us on facebook: urltoken follow us on twitter: urltoken rob the mob trailer 1 (2014) - crime movie hd a couple targets the mafia for heists and stumbles upon something big at an underground club .
irresistible, and based on a real - life story that' s still hard to believe ,
rob the mob
stars michael pitt and nina arianda as a queens couple who ask themselves a creative question about crime - - why not rob the criminals? whom are they going to complain to? as tommy and rosie, pitt and arianda are just the right kind of nuts, the right kind of dumb, the right kind of desperate and the right kind of in love to make it all go down like pie .
a queens couple who specialize in robbing mafia social clubs stumble upon a score bigger than they could ever imagine, becoming targets of both the mob and the fbi in the process .
the movie is playing in limited release after debuting in new york last week to strong reviews and promising box office. like many movies made outside the studio system, it' s a minor miracle that
rob the mob
made it this far, nearly seven years after pizzonia was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the couple' s 1992 murders .
tommy’s fascination with the mob is deeply personal; when he was a boy, he saw his father suffer a brutal beating beat at the hands of local gangsters. so when he hears sammy name a mafia - owned social club where no guns are permitted, he has an idea: why not rob the joint? and so begins a series of bonnie - and - clyde - style stickups of mob hangouts around the city, with tommy wielding an uzi and rosie driving the beat - up getaway car. the brazen daylight raids net enough cash for the lovers to move in together, taking their fiery romance to the next level. they also draw the attention of the fbi and veteran mob reporter cardozo (romano), who splashes their unlikely story across the front page of the paper. but while the attacks enrage the mob, bonanno crime family head big al (garcia) orders his men only to scare the couple. after all, he says, eagles don' t kill flies .
rather than abandon it, the filmmakers scaled back their ambitions and reduced their budget to about $ 5 million and cast arianda and garcia, beefing up his part to help land him. with avi lerner' s millennium entertainment coming in to share the production costs (millennium is also the distributor) with some private investors ,
rob the mob
was finally back on track .
tommy comes up with a plan to rob a mob - owned club where no guns are allowed. this leads the couple to hit multiple mafia hangouts. naturally, the mobsters will not take this lying down. but when tommy and rosie discover a well - guarded secret that could help the feds bring down new york' s already weakening crime syndicate, the pair is in a much more dangerous position .
there were at least four robberies, and as the crime spree stretched over several months, the mob initially seemed unable to stop it. perhaps belaboring the obvious, one former high - ranking mob figure, who became a government witness several years ago, said ,
it' s embarrassing if wise guys get held up .
in the opening scene when the car pulls to the side of the road, a post - 1991 model suv passes by in the background .
when a reputed crime boss was charged in 2007 with the couple' s killings, fernandez traveled from hollywood and spent two weeks inside the u. s. district court in brooklyn, not far from where he grew up in new jersey. and from fernandez' s perch in the gallery as dominick
skinny dom
pizzonia was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, the script for
rob the mob
started to come together. the film opens friday in los angeles .
regardless of who ordered the killings, they did not come before the mob had suffered some embarrassment. the robberies had stunned the world of organized crime: gangland figures were incredulous over the brazen assaults on the normally inviolate establishments where they played cards, sipped coffee and schemed, according to several law enforcement officials .
moreover, mr. uva, 28, may have been something of a mob buff, according to one law enforcement official who said investigators believed mr. uva had attended the 1992 trial of john j. gotti. and after the couple were killed, investigators found that they had a list of mob figures' telephone and pager numbers, the official said .
rob the mob is a fun and jaunty crime flick that works really well when it' s focused on its two winsome leads, but starts to fall apart as it introduces more and more side characters (ray romano' s jerry cardonzo being the exception). still, de felitta' s solid direction offers a new york grit and humor that rightly vibes with the underdog story upon which it' s based .
a naïve but rather ambitious' bonnie and clyde' couple takes on the new york mob in raymond de felitta' s impressively sustained and well performed drama .
although it’s set in the early ’90s, rob the mob has the loose, jaunty feel of a ’70s - era b movie. raymond de felitta ’s wildly entertaining film based on the fascinating true - life tale of thomas and rosemarie uva, a queens couple who made the fatal mistake of robbing mafia “social clubs, ” benefits from a smart, crackling screenplay by jonathan fernandez; terrific performances by everyone from its topline players to its rich supporting cast; and a beautifully realized evocation of new york city’s outer boroughs .
de felitta has a feel for this world and its atmosphere, from the clutter and casual ugliness of the streets, to the insularity of the mentality, to the unexpected sweetness and vulnerability of the people .
the uvas set out more than a dozen years ago to solve their financial difficulties in a most unusual fashion: walking into mob social clubs with an uzi submachine gun and separating the mafiosi within from their ill - gotten gains .
while rob the mob treads a fine line between comedy and crime thriller, it' s the film' s lighthearted moments that work the best, and that' s primarily thanks to pitt' s ever - scowling tommy and arianda' s vivacious, loudmouthed rosie. the tony - winning arianda in particular delivers a great comedic performance that plays well off of pitt' s temper - laced aloofness. there' s also tommy and rosie' s agency boss, dave lovell (griffin dunne), whose lavishly animated personality generates laughs, though sometimes at the expense of realism .
but as the filmmakers tried to land financing, they were repeatedly told that people weren' t interested in mob movies anymore —
they' re dead ,
was one line — even from prominent producers who said they loved the screenplay. some even suggested they change the ending, and have the couple live, an unacceptable idea to the team .
although not lacking in suspense, the fast - paced film takes the time to explore the reason for tommy’s hatred of the mafia — he blames them for the death of his father — as well as the wildly passionate relationship between the two central characters, superbly played by pitt and the vivacious arianda .
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what tommy and rosie don’t know is that the clubs are under fbi surveillance, with one veteran agent (frank whaley) utterly bemused by the couple’s daringness. he leaks a photo of several of the mob victims vainly chasing tommy clad only in their underwear — tommy humiliated them by making them strip during the robbery — to a tabloid journalist (ray romano), who splashes the story all over the front page .
based on a true story, raymond de felitta' s rob the mob takes place in new york city in 1991 and follows two small - time crooks, tommy (michael pitt) and rosie (nina arianda), whose unbridled love for one another is only outdone by their criminal, thrill - seeking lifestyles. the story opens with a failed flower shop robbery that lands tommy in jail for 18 months. by the time he gets out, rosie' s gone straight with a new job at a debt - collecting agency and convinces tommy to join her. however, it isn' t long before the couple is once again in dire straights, and tommy comes up with a crazy idea - - that is, instead of flower shops and convenient stores, why not just steal from the mob ?
but tommy is less interested in his work duties than in attending the trial of mob boss john gotti, where one hoodlum testifies about the private clubs in which the mafia members hang out and where guns are strictly forbidden. “wise guys and guns … it’s a bad mix, ” he points out .
the doors to the social clubs were almost always open, and the patrons inside were generally unarmed — and carrying a sizable amount of cash. most important, the victims were unlikely to call the police .
even in the annals of dumb crooks, tommy and rosemarie uva weren' t the sharpest tools in the shed. in the early 1990s, the young queens couple decided to stick up mafia social clubs .
the title “rob the mob” promises more of an outright romp than this entertainingly garrulous but ultimately melancholy crime tale delivers. de felitta has probed the ambitions and anxieties of regular new york citizens in a number of his features — notably “city island” and sundance favorite “two family house” — but this is his first to focus principally on underworld matters, doing so with the deglamorized, domestic focus of many a post - “sopranos” mafia study. it certainly begins on an upbeat note, with deee - lite’s immortally kitsch club jam “groove is in the heart” placing viewers immediately in the taste - challenged, politically and economically transitional milieu of early - ’90s america, but a serious, unsanctimonious moral conscience will kick in well before the story’s wintry end .
naturally, none of this sits well with aging mob boss big al (andy garcia, who previously collaborated with de felitta on the equally fine if little - seen city island), a seemingly genteel type who likes to spend his time teaching his adoring young grandson the art of cooking rice balls. at first, big al is content to ignore the young criminals, but he’s eventually spurred to order violent retribution when tommy begins threatening to make public the list of mob members he’s purloined from one of his hapless victims (burt young) .
the film' s director, raymond de felitta, makes the kind of movies that only small groups of people really love, usually because only small groups of people get to see them .
city island
( 2009), about a bronx cop who wants to be an actor, has taken on cult status; anyone who' s seen
two - family house
( 2000), about an unlikely couple in staten island, is unlikely to forget it. with
rob the mob
and its script by jonathan fernandez, he' s altered his style a bit. the pace is faster, the humor more biting, the story more off - the - wall, and the camerawork more frenetic. but at the core is a love story, with more than a little sense of bad news around its edges .
the movie is full of quirky, usually worthwhile digressions (andy garcia has an expansive part as a mob boss) that add to its offbeat tone, further abetted by interesting musical choices and a very nice score by stephan endelman .
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the plan works to the couple' s advantage, as tommy learns while sitting in on the john gotti trial that mafia social clubs are gun - free zones. manned only with an uzi and a pillow case, tommy miraculously pulls off his first heist - - even convincing the gangsters to strip off all their clothes in the process - - and makes a quick getaway thanks to his driver rosie. soon, the nefarious duo earn a dangerous reputation that catches the eyes of both the media and the mob' s boss
big al
( played by a full - bearded andy garcia) .
in may, the two hatched a plan: thomas would storm into the club and order the men inside to empty their valuables. rosie would wait outside in the getaway car .
michael pitt and nina arianda play the crazy - in - love tommy and rosie, whose early attempt to rob a florist results in tommy getting caught and being sent to prison. cut to 18 months later, when rosie is working at a collection agency run by the perpetually jovial dave (griffin dunne), who makes it a habit of employing ex - cons. welcoming the newly sprung tommy to the fold, he proudly informs him, “i hire people who’ve been abandoned by society. ”
rob the mob
romanticizes tommy and rosie, filming them in slo - mo dancing through raining dollar bills, and kissing in the rain on a deserted coney island boardwalk, but the couple lacks the iconic power of other famous crime - spree cinematic duos, including their namesake. the romantic treatment of some of their scenes and the sentimental soundtrack is all counter - acted by casting pitt and arianda, who inhabit their roles familiarly, grubbily, easily. both actors portray characters who are clearly not smart, not even a little bit, but they do so without being patronizing about it. you don' t get the sense that they, the actors, are
slumming
. tommy and rosie have no self - awareness, and no powers of self - reflection. tony award - winning arianda, in particular, is fascinating to watch. she was fascinating to watch in her small part in
the robberies committed by the couple - - in brooklyn, queens and little italy, at clubs with names like the hawaiian moonlighters and the veterans and friends - - were such a sore point among mob figures, according to f. b. i. reports and law enforcement officials, that two crime families argued over who should get credit for their deaths. federal prosecutors have said in court papers that john a. gotti once boasted that his group, the gambino family, was responsible for the hit, not the bonannos, who had also claimed credit .
basically the story of a man forced to finally see the injustice around him. riley’s movie is designed to do the same thing to you. …
starring as tommy is boardwalk empire' s michael pitt. nina arianda (tower heist) plays rosie. tv' s ray romano portrays veteran mob reporter jerry cardozo, who makes tommy' s and rosie' s exploits famous. in the part of big al, leader of the bonanno crime family, is andy garcia .
to fernandez, it' s just the way of things in hollywood :
things take forever. it' s the nature of the business .
the cops fingered dominick “skinny dom” pizzonia, a reputed gambino capo who ran one of the social clubs the uvas knocked over. pizzonia was convicted in 2007 for participating in the murders, despite his claim that he was scaling fish with his mistress at the time .
after the arraignment, mr. pizzonia' s lawyer, joseph corozzo, cited the bonanno family' s claim of responsibility in the case, noting that cooperating witnesses from that family had talked about the killings .
the picture was directed by raymond de felitta, best known for 2005' s the thing about my folks. jonathan fernandez (star trek enterprise) wrote the screenplay .
as tommy and rosie, pitt and arianda are just the right kind of nuts, the right kind of dumb, the right kind of desperate and the right kind of in love to make it all go down like pie .
the two fell victim to an “open contract” issued by the gambino and bonanno gang families. the uvas were an especially attractive target because of the way they had violated and humiliated the made men. (in one robbery, tommy made his elderly italian victims strip to their underwear. )
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starring michael pitt (
boardwalk empire
) and tony - award winning actress nina arianda (
venus in fur
) as tommy and rosemarie, the independently financed movie was directed by
city island
filmmaker raymond de felitta. the cast includes
city island
star andy garcia as a mob boss more interested in cooking than crime, ray romano as a newspaper columnist smitten with the uva' s cheeky crime spree and griffin dunne as the munificent operator of a collection agency willing to hire the ex - con tommy and his girlfriend .
jonathan fernandez’s brisk, flavorful script doesn’t exactly romanticize tommy and rosemarie’s misguided activity: like robin hood, they’re stealing from the rich to give to the poor, with the sullying qualification that they alone are the poor in question. the tangled ethics of their scheme are of less narrative interest to de felitta than the personal motivation behind it, as tommy is revealed to have a personal score to settle with the mob that relates to his estranged family. (cathy moriarty puts in a brief, stinging appearance as his unforgiving mom .) his and rosemarie’s relationship, meanwhile, is depicted in affectingly febrile terms, their mutual devotion so reckless as to lead both lovers against their better judgment .
in the abstract, the choice of location made sense. the clubs were filled with guys with fat wallets and even chunkier jewelry, and they didn' t carry guns for fear of government raids and were not likely to call the police for help. but their plan had one obvious and ultimately fatal flaw: the uvas were, after all, stealing from the gambino and colombo crime families. fatal being the key word here .
as soon as he poked into several mafia hangouts while covering the pizzonia trial, the screenwriter, who worked briefly as an argentina correspondent for the associated press and is married to a former los angeles times reporter, knew the film wasn' t going to be anything like the mobster movies he admired growing up .
it' s a decision big al will come to regret. during one of their heists, tommy and rosie stumble upon a mafia secret so closely guarded that rank - and - file mobsters don’t even know it exists. to the feds, it’s the smoking gun they’ve been looking for—a key to finally dismantling new york’s already - faltering crime syndicate. to big al, it' s the high cost of his earlier leniency—a mistake he quickly moves to correct. for tommy and rosie, caught between the law and a mob contract, the future all depends on who gets to them first .
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two decades after serving as semi - light relief for big apple newspaper editors in the heady days of the john gotti trial, the richly improbable story of tommy and rosemarie uva gets lively, compassionate treatment in the latest likable effort from practiced east coast portraitist raymond de felitta. though the film reunites de felitta with andy [ … ]
the supporting figures, such as garcia’s somber mob boss and romano’s moralistic journalist who finds himself feeling increasingly sympathetic to the brazen young criminals whose lives he’s putting in danger with his stories, are equally well fleshed - out. garcia, sporting a heavy gray beard, invests his character with an impressive gravitas, while romano further demonstrates the dramatic skills he’s unveiled on nbc’s parenthood. the large supporting cast, which also includes such familiar faces as cathy moriarty as tommy’s estranged mother and michael rispoli as big al’s second - in - command, deliver impressive turns all around .
the rest of the cast is populated by stalwart long - time new york actors, grounding the film in its location and era. cathy moriarty shows up in a heartbreaking cameo as tommy' s devastated mother, wrecked by a lifetime of disappointment and violence. moriarty gives another unforgettable cameo performance in the upcoming
the double
. it' s exciting to think of the direction her career is taking .
the man, dominick pizzonia, who prosecutors say was known as skinny dom, was charged with racketeering conspiracy, including the two murders .
kitted out with an uzi he can barely handle and an initially skeptical rosemarie as his getaway driver, tommy pulls off his initial heists in such straightforwardly successful fashion that even he is taken off - guard — to say nothing of the fbi agents monitoring the raided clubs, or tabloid reporter cardozo (ray romano), who offers rosemarie a sympathetic ear and gives their story front - page placement. most bewildered of all, of course, is the mob itself. local don fiorello (garcia, exuding sage weariness from under a salt - and - pepper beard) initially deems the couple too lightweight to merit violent counteraction; when tommy chances upon crucial inside information that could undo the entire syndicate, however, the stakes are raised .
no one had been charged in the case until yesterday, when f. b. i. agents and police detectives arrested a man, whom they accused of being a captain in the gambino crime family, on charges that he was part of the hit team that killed the couple .
mr. pizzonia was close to mr. gotti, the flamboyant mob chief who died in 2002 in federal prison, where he was serving a life sentence for murder and racketeering. his son, john a. gotti, avoided a racketeering conviction in his own case on tuesday when a federal jury in manhattan returned hung verdicts on three charges against him and voted not guilty on a fourth .
on federal wire taps, members from rival crime families the bonannos and gambinos can even be heard arguing over who should get credit for the uvas’ executions .
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the two are arrested and sent to jail after robbing a florist on valentine' s day. later, they decide to go straight and get jobs at a collection agency, but when tommy skips work to attend the trial of mafia hit man sammy
the bull
gravano, he is drawn back into the criminal word .
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yesterday, the silver - haired mr. pizzonia, 63, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in united states district court in brooklyn. the assistant united states attorneys prosecuting the case, winston y. chan and mitra hormozi, filed papers asking the judge to hold him without bail, and a hearing was scheduled for next week .
investigators were looking into the role of another gambino figure, ronald trucchio, known as ronnie one arm for his withered right limb, who was sentenced in august to 20 years in federal prison on racketeering conspiracy charges, the officials and investigators said. a third man served as the getaway driver, the officials and investigators have said .
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honestly, i am not a fan of mob movies. i can count those i have seen on one hand. i am truly not interested in watching a movie about these people. generally. my only reason for watching this was michael pitt. i am a fan and i' ll give anything he is in a go. i couldn' t say i actually liked him in this one as all i could see was the dumb ass true life moron he plays (which is a credit to his acting skills). i mean seriously, who would hold up the mob (or anyone) and show their face and then take personal belongings such as gold watches which could easily be identified as belonging to a particular person - also with no disguise. how did this man honestly expect to get away with that? ! it staggers me that this is a true story. having said that, it was entertaining and kept me watching and i liked the actress who played the girlfriend too - very unusual look and fun character (unfortunately, also dumb as). slightly amusing (intentionally ?), well paced movie. recommended .
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the crime spree was predictably short - lived. they were killed in 1992 in one of the more public executions in the recent history of organized crime in new york. on christmas eve, in broad daylight on a busy queens thoroughfare, they were each shot several times in the head as they sat in a car at a traffic light. ms. uva, the authorities said, had more than $ 1, 000 in her wallet; investigators said they believed the couple might have been out for some last - minute christmas shopping .
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the couple committing the robberies were not completely in uncharted territory. the diminutive, doe - eyed ms. uva had been convicted of attempted robbery several years earlier and had served a little more than a year in state prison. her husband had been in state prison twice; he was released in may 1991 after serving nearly three years for first - degree robbery. investigators at the time of the couple' s deaths said mr. uva had a drug problem .
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the killings of rosie and tommy are still something of a point of pride in certain new york communities .
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the uvas worked at a manhattan collection agency and lived in ozone park, queens, once the stomping ground of john gotti. thomas, then 28, was an ex - con who had done time for robbery .
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“we filmed in real social clubs, and [ the members ] were fine with it, ” fernandez says .
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the duo were quickly dubbed “bonnie and clyde” and evidently knew that what they were doing would probably lead to disaster .
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in the annals of new york city crime, few undertakings were more ill - advised, foolhardy and just plain dangerous than the one that prosecutors say was chosen by thomas and rose marie uva, a young married couple from queens .
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when screenwriter jonathan fernandez heard of the uva' s imprudent bonnie - and - clyde scheme, he did something almost as rash. rather than come at their tale as a storyteller, the former journalist approached it as a reporter .
a romance about two down - and - outers that reveals the workings of a whole citywide ecosystem of crime and punishment .
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mr. pizzonia' s lawyer, mr. corozzo, also said yesterday that the prosecutors had brought the charges against his client as a
knee - jerk reaction to get anyone who was close to john gotti after his son was victorious in court last week .
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after one of his victims warned thomas that the mafia would eventually kill him, tommy reportedly replied with a shrug, “everybody dies. ”
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i would not put this in the same category as any scorcese movie but this is very much worth seeing and you won' t be disappointed .
mr. gotti' s lawyer, jeffrey h. lichtman, said yesterday that his client had no role in the crimes .
if they had any evidence against john, they certainly would have brought it in this case, or in the case in 1998 against john ,
he said .
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the protagonists’ inadequate criminal credentials are established upfront with a botched flower - shop heist that lands tommy (an inky - haired pitt) 18 months in the slammer. rosemarie (arianda) attempts to go straight, securing employment with lovell (griffin dunne), a smarmy ex - con debt collector who believes in second chances and agrees to hire tommy, too, upon his release. tommy’s mind, however, is only half on the job. fascinated by the ongoing gotti trial, which he regularly skips work to attend, he fixates on one witness’ testimony about mafia - owned drinking holes where no guns are permitted — with his and rosemarie’s combined incomes barely getting them by, the criminal allure of this sitting - duck setup is too great to resist .
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty. what a space it opens…
on the media side of things, ray romano plays a beat reporter, jerry cardozo, who after tommy and rosie' s first heist gets a tip from an fbi surveillance agent (frank whaley) that' s landed photos of tommy and rosie in the act. romano' s performance is another that works really well here, as the comedian channels more of his dramatic side seen on nbc' s parenthood. his character is also arguably the film' s moral center - - a much - needed figure in a story filled with ne' er - do - wells. sadly, romano' s part is much smaller than expected, which is a shame because he has such good on - screen chemistry with arianda and pitt that further exposes the twosome' s ridiculous escapades .
instead, they aimed to tell a comedic romance, a look at a young couple whose life ended in love, not blood .
i felt that you needed to love them ,
de felitta said .
but you also needed to show what obvious limitations they had. they were crazy, but they weren' t bad .
( for all the couple' s ineptness, their robberies also netted them a secret list of organized crime hierarchies; it was so valuable that fbi agents, who were wiretapping the clubs and knew of the thieving, stole it from the uvas and used it to take down several crime bosses) .
daily box office (sun .) | weekend box office (jul. 6–8) | # 1 movie:' ant - man and the wasp' | showtimes
roger ebert' s speech on empathy for the
11th hour
series on april 9th, 1994, being republished here in honor of his birthday june 18 .
arianda has seemed poised for a breakout; this could do the trick. as rosie, she' s smart enough to have made an impression on dave (griffin dunne), the wacky, philanthropic owner of a collection agency that hires ex - offenders, which is how tommy gets hired, too. but tommy is a screwup, and he wants fast money, and rosie is too much in love to say no. and besides, is it really a crime to hold up a social club? and so what if tommy makes the members undress, and they get their picture in a city tabloid, courtesy of the feds and reporter jerry cardozo (ray romano) ?
tommy (michael pitt) and rosie uva (nina arianda) have recently emerged from short stints in prison for holding up a florist' s shop. they are in love. rosie has gotten a job at a debt collection agency, run by a smiling enthusiastic guy (griffin dunne) who likes to hire ex - cons (he himself did time for fraud). rosie, a woman with an ingratiating supportive attitude and a big laugh which masks her intellectual shortcomings, convinces her boss to also hire tommy. when money is tight one month, they decide on their reckless quick - cash crime spree. rosie drives the get - away car and tommy, wearing a ski - mask, does the stick - up, accidentally firing off the uzi into the ceiling and back walls. the group of
wise guys
in the club empty their wallets, all while issuing threats of what they will do when they track him down. when tommy and rosie go home to their bleak cold - water flat, they laugh and commiserate over how easy it was .
in a world in which studios are making the big lego movies, writers today have to be more proactive and take more control ,
said fernandez, who early in his career worked for the legendary producers roger corman and dino de laurentiis .
we ended up with a movie i' m really proud of. i couldn' t be happier .
law enforcement officials and investigators, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, have said that they have enough evidence to prove that mr. pizzonia was one of two gunmen that day .
having jotted down the clubs' addresses, tommy, armed with an uzi, and rosie, manning a getaway car that was given to her by her late father, begin a series of robberies like a modern - day bonnie and clyde, their victims being the mobsters who can scarcely believe that anyone would be both brazen enough and dumb enough to take them on .
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unexpectedly but effectively cast in a role that plays to his sullen strengths, pitt has a palpable, playful rapport with arianda, a tony - winning broadway ingenue whose warm, expressive features and tinderbox comic timing recall the young marisa tomei – who would surely have played this role if the story had been more swiftly ripped from the headlines by hollywood. defining rosemarie’s intellectual limitations with wit and not a hint of condescension, while playing up her persuasive personal magnetism, it’s a shrewd and sneakily touching star turn that stokes interest in her casting as rock icon janis joplin in sean durkin’s still - unproduced “janis. ” a multitude of faces readily associated with this geographic and cinematic terrain (including a couple of “sopranos” alums) peppers the cannily - cast ensemble .
as they developed the screenplay, it was clear that fernandez, de felitta and producer william teitler were trying to tell an anti -
goodfellas
tale .
i was not interested in making a mafia movie ,
de felitta said .
you can' t beat the good ones. i thought it was a great true crime story and it wasn' t even that well - known. but it was incredibly poignant .
she was born in the bronx, new york and went immediately from high school into an acting career. she made a colossal breakthrough in 1980 in scorsese' s film raging bull, playing vicky lamotta opposite ...
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born and raised in queens, new york, ray romano originally planned to become an accountant, but started his career on stage as a stand up comic. after taking a chance in 1984, he found the stage ...
born in syracuse, new york, frank whaley is best known for his vivid portrayals of put - upon, sometimes ill - fated young men. whaley studied theater at both the university of new york, albany and ...
it was just a bunch of old guys sitting around, playing cards, in a really drab place ,
fernandez said .
it looked nothing like' the godfather.' i thought:' this was fresh.'
mr. pitt is a credible lunkhead, and ms. arianda is a delight, dressing rosie' s filthy mouth in the sweetest of smiles. if you were tommy, you' d want to give her everything, too .
on christmas eve 1992, he and rosie set out in their mercury topaz at 8: 30 a. m. while waiting at a light at 103rd avenue and 91st street in ozone park, gunmen shot them each three times in the head .
however, despite tommy and rosie' s entertaining hijinks, the film does feel a little bloated at times. for example, a good chunk of the film is spent with big al, who' s largely portrayed as a kindly master chef that' s more interested in making rice balls and imparting wisdom to his young grandson than getting directly involved in his family' s dirty work. garcia plays the part well, but most of his character' s scenes involve him and middleman sal (michael rispoli) recapping events that literally just happened, rendering a lot of his screen time useless. likewise, there' s a more serious subplot involving tommy and his estranged family that adds some depth to pitt' s character, but ultimately goes nowhere .
techs are modest but efficient across the board; a climactic set piece that dives into time - lapse trickery feels discordantly ostentatious by comparison. carlos menendez’s production design and tere duncan’s costumes tidily re - create a shabby era of mirrored sunglasses and fluorescent christmas decorations without lurching too far into parody .
new york city, 1991. small - time crooks tommy (pitt) and rosie (arianda) have two things in common: a crazy - passionate love for one another and—after they' re caught robbing a florist on valentine' s day—prison records. trying to go straight, rosie lands a job at a debt - collection agency and persuades tommy to join her. but soon tommy is skipping his shifts to do something much more interesting—attend the landmark trial of mafia hit man sammy
the bull
gravano, whose graphic testimony could finally bring down flamboyant gambino - family boss john gotti .
in paris ,
where she droningly and happily repeated whatever her snobby husband said. arianda' s rosie is filled with enthusiasm and support for those around her (watch, in particular, how she butters up her boss, cheering him on like they' re at a pep rally), and despite her initial resistance to tommy' s plan, she finally embraces it wholeheartedly. she' s not killing anyone. she' s stealing from bad men .
what' s the crime in that ?
she asks cardoza, grinning at him chummily over her slice of pizza. arianda shows rosie' s shallow grasp of abstract concepts in a frozen smile and confused flicker in her eyes when confronted with something she doesn' t understand. cardoza says to her ,
we got a saying in the newspaper world - -
and she cuts him off, brightly, supportively, missing the entire point :
i love sayings! slogans !
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new york city, 1991. small - time crooks tommy (pitt) and rosie (arianda) have two things in common: a crazy - passionate love for one another and - after they' re caught robbing a florist on valentine' s day - prison records. trying to go straight, rosie lands a job at a debt - collection agency and persuades tommy to join her. but soon tommy is skipping his shifts to do something much more interesting - attend the landmark trial of mafia hit man sammy
the bull
gravano, whose graphic testimony could finally bring down flamboyant gambino - family boss john gotti. (c) millennium entertainment
a millennium entertainment release of a william teitler production in association with william kay. (international sales: the exchange, los angeles .) produced by william teitler. executive producers, william kay, andy garcia, jonathan fernandez, raymond de felitta, michael pitt. co - producer, lynn appelle, richard atkinson, david fleischner .
directed by raymond de felitta. screenplay, jonathan fernandez. camera (color, widescreen), christopher norr; editor, david leonard; music, stephen endelman; music supervisor, jim black; production designer, carlos menendez; art director, raphael sorcio; set decorator, robert covelman; costume designer, tere duncan; sound (dolby digital), felix andrew; re - recording mixers, lew goldstein, tom ryan; visual effects supervisor, christopher healer; visual effects, the molecule; stunt coordinator, roy farfel; associate producer, isabel teitler; assistant director, matthew vose campbell; second unit director, al bettner; casting, sheila jaffe, georgianne walken .
back in 1992, young queens couple thomas and rosemarie uva were in need of money, so they hit upon a not - so - brilliant plan: they stick up mafia - friendly social clubs, robbing whomever they found inside of cash and jewelry.
rob the mob is a 2014 american crime drama film directed by raymond de felitta and written by jonathan fernandez . the film stars michael pitt , nina arianda , andy garcía , ray romano , aida turturro , frank whaley , michael rispoli and joseph r. gannascoli . the film is based on a true story . 
rob the mob is a 2014 american crime drama film directed by raymond de felitta and written by jonathan fernandez. the film stars michael pitt, nina arianda, andy garcía, ray romano, aida turturro, frank whaley, michael rispoli and joseph r. gannascoli. the film is based on a true story.
rob the mob is a 2014 american crime drama film directed by raymond de felitta and written by jonathan fernandez. the film stars michael pitt, nina arianda, andy garcía, ray romano, aida turturro, frank whaley, michael rispoli and joseph r. gannascoli. the film is based on a true story.