![]() Watch the trailer for Vendetta: Truth, Lies and the MafiaĪs soon as Maniaci started prodding around the higher echelons of local government, a tape appeared in which he is apparently seen attempting to extort hundreds of dollars from a local mayor. It wasn’t entirely unexpected to see Maniaci spit: “You pieces of shit,” while jabbing his finger at the camera, which you have to admit isn’t something you would expect from Huw Edwards. Fronted by Pino Maniaci – a small, chainsmoking man with a moustache so huge it makes him look like a Pixar character – Telejato news bulletins often took to calling out specific members of the mob directly. ![]() Vendetta tells the story of Telejato, a tiny, local Sicilian television station that made its name with a virulently anti-mafia stance. Indeed, there is a bracing lack of romance here rather, it is a slow procession of old, tired men and women smoking indoors, worn down by the relentlessness of it all. But while the latter is an offshoot of a TV show that went out of its way to deglamorise the mob, compared with this new documentary it stinks of Hollywood artifice. It was also a mistake for Estevez the writer to give Estevez the actor all the best lines.W hether deliberate or not, the release of new Netflix series Vendetta: Truth, Lies and the Mafia very neatly coincides with that of the Sopranos prequel, The Many Saints of Newark. Estevez is a fine actor, but the part of the saintly Goodson, even with some trouble in his past, does not give him much to work with. Michael Kenneth Williams, as the de facto leader of the homeless comes the closest to creating a fully realized character who is a person, not just a point. Like the Smurfs, each one has a single identifier. The young librarian is self-righteous about her carbon footprint but may not be so public-spirited about the issues happening in front of her.Įstevez does little to create characters among the homeless occupiers, which is a particular shortcoming in a movie that is trying so hard to make us see them as people. The reporter is more interested in trending on Twitter than getting the facts. So, a candidate thinks that a SWAT team-style intervention to get the homeless people out of the library will help his campaign. ![]() Those attributes are extreme, selected more to make a point than to tell a human story. Even gifted actors like Alec Baldwin, as a sympathetic police negotiator, Jena Malone as an idealistic young librarian, Taylor Schilling as Goodson’s neighbor, Jeffrey Wright as the library’s director, Christian Slater as the political candidate, and Gabrielle Union as the newscaster, cannot bring much life to characters who are each given about one and a half attributes to create an entire personality. It quickly becomes a standoff, with police, politicians-including opposing mayoral candidates-and media, in this case represented by just one ambitious local news reporter.Įstevez showed us with the underrated “Bobby” that he has a talent for balancing multi-character stories, but this time as a writer he has stacked the deck with exaggerated, thinly conceived characters. One night, dozens of the library’s homeless regulars decide to stay past closing time. But mostly, they sit quietly, looking at books or using the computers.Īs the movie opens, the city is experiencing a severe cold snap that has filled all the shelters and two homeless people have already died from exposure. Sometimes they are disruptive, as when one man takes off all his clothes and starts singing “I Can See Clearly Now,” or when another’s pungent odor is so powerful that it disturbs other patrons. They spend the day there because the library is the one place people can stay without having to spend money. Goodson works in a large public library that is a refuge for dozens of homeless people, some mentally ill, who wait outside every morning until it opens and then rush in to use the bathrooms.
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