....And I twitch a lot. It's hard to miss. It makes me look like a goddamn spastic, but if I try to hold it back, it just makes it worse." (Lionel Essrog)
Its funny. . . . To me anyway.
Though I now live back in New York and very into Noir obviously, I heard nothing about this films production. I actually caught the film on the big screen on its opening day premiere about as far away from Brooklyn as you an get 2,900 miles away in a theater in Burlington, Washington in the shadows of the Cascades. It was the first show of the day and in an almost empty house. I wasn't expecting much and I was very pleasantly surprised.
Director, Edward Norton combining Jonathan Lethem novel Motherless Brooklyn with The Power Broker, a Pulitzer Prize–winning biography of Robert Moses by Robert A. Caro created a sort of New York version of Roman Polanski's Chinatown.
In that film inspired by the California Water Wars, Noah Cross and Hollis Mulwray (chief engineer of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power) manipulated the Los Angeles Basin and Owens River water supply to dry up farmland so that it could be bought on the cheap so as to control all the water rights.
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| Bruce Willis as Frank Minna |
Robert Moses created and led numerous public authorities that gave him autonomy from the general public and elected officials. Through these authorities, he controlled millions of dollars in income from his projects, such as tolls, and he could issue bonds to borrow vast sums for new ventures with little or no input from legislative bodies. Moses conceived and created Jones Beach and the New York State Park system.
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| Alec Baldwin as Moses Randolph |
Bridge heights did not allow cheap public transportation access, so not only were the poor blacks, Latinos and other minorities displaced by these transportation improvements but those of the without car ownership had no way to get there.
I was one of the lucky ones, a kid whose parents owned a car. I remember a typical day at the beach. It was exciting. It started early. I was up with Dad. We loaded the beach chairs into the Chrysler. A jet age tail fin Windsor. A cooler, a beach umbrella, the split bamboo mats. Filled the tank at Moe's Sunoco.
We headed off to Joe Batini's Deli. Joe's was on 23rd. Ave Astoria, under the massive truss of the Hell Gate Bridge approach. We got salami hero sandwiches. Headed over to 46th St to pick up cousins Paulie and Michael. Back at the house we got mom and sis, then we got on the Grand Central Parkway. It was the Grand Central to the Northern State to the Wantag Parkway to Jones Beach. All Robert Moses projects. It was only 40 miles. The speed limit was 45 mph. It took forever to us kids. The destination was Field 9. The East end of nowhere. The destination for surf casters and adventurous families. The field house had porthole windows and was designed to look like a boat It housed changing rooms, bathrooms and a snack bar. It only exists in memories.
All this is a backdrop anchor to a tail of murder and messy family intrigue.
Early Morning. The late, late 50s. My NYC. Manhattan. An unnamed borough neighborhood. Could be Morningside Heights. Typical residential street lined with three and five story walk ups of brick and brownstone. They are fronted by wrought iron stockades and occasionally shaded by maples or ash anchored between sidewalk and bluestone curb.
A 1953 Ford 4 door sedan looking like a large chrome trimmed beetle sits and idles. Lionel Essrog and Gilbert Coney are a couple of goof-ball Ops who work for Frank Minna's L&L Detective Agency. Its a slightly shady outfit one of those agencies that plays both ends against the middle . Gilbert is not playing with a full deck while Lionel has Tourette syndrome.
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| Edward Norton as Lionel Essrog and Ethan Suplee as Gilbert Coney |
The both of them along with Franks other Ops Tony Vermonte and Danny Fantl, were all alumni of a NYC Catholic orphanage. Frank took the all under his wing. Lionel and Gilbert were both, in Franks words at the time, fucking messes.
Lionel Essrog: Fuckin' mess is right. The nun said my soul wasn't at peace with God and I should do penance. Frank said anyone teaching God's love while they hit you with a stick should be ignored on every subject.
Lionel uncontrollably blurts out rhyming gibberish, twitches like a twit, and generally acts weirder than Gilbert. This gives Gilbert a sort of false illusion of superiority. Don't believe it, he's one of Brooklyn's dimer bulbs. Lionel though, possesses a photographic memory and a high IQ which makes him an important asset to the agency. Frank's nickname for Lionel is "Motherless Brooklyn."
Lionel and Gilbert are on stakeout. Lionel is picking at a loose thread on his sweater sleeve.
Lionel Essrog: If!
Gilbert Coney: Quit pullin' at it! You're gonna make a fuckin' mess out of things.
Lionel Essrog: I got threads in my heads. I got threads in my heads! I got threads in my heads, man!
Frank Minna walks down the street towards them. Minna leans over the open window and gives Lionel somewhat complicated and detailed instructions including a phone number to call. At the end of them, Gilbert blurts to Frank "hows come you giving the lead to Lionel?' Frank asks Lionel about the instructions and Lionel repeats them back fast and verbatim.
They are supposed to shadow a meeting between Frank and William Lieberman. When Frank gives them a signal from the window of the meet house Lionel is to call the phone in the meeting room from the phone booth across the street. Frank will answer but announce that its a wrong number but leave the phone off the hook so Lionel an listen in.
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| 1958 Plymouth Plaza |
When Lieberman and his two goons don't like the price Frank is asking on his shakdown they grab him at gunpoint and take him out to their tail finned mildew green 1958 Plymouth Plaza. Lionel who heard it all go down has already scrambled back to the Ford. Lionel and Gilbert tail the Plaza as it takes off with Frank. Lionel and Gilbert follow.
A car chase ensues apparently across upper Manhattan and to the Harlem fork of the Triboro Bridge. They then head towards Astoria, Queens.
Once across the Triboro Bridge. They make a right heading South. Then down into what looks like Long Island City and its industrial/warehouse district. Lionel and Gilbert are not the cavalry to the rescue, they arrive, the goons panic and Frank accidentally gets shot. Lieberman and his goons skedaddle. Lionel and Gilbert grab Frank.
The assist Frank into the ford and rush him through Long Island City to the nearest hospital.
Frank dying at the hospital tells Lionel to take his hat.
Lionel not only takes Franks hat but also his coat and other belongings. After the funeral Frank's distraught widow Julia leaves the agency in goomba Tony Vermonte's charge. Tony doesn't have much ambition or motivation in trying to find out who killed Frank.
Lionel takes it more personally, he starts wearing Franks fedora and coat and dedicates himself in to solving Franks death. Tony calls Lionel "Freakshow," and tells him he's wasting his time. In classic hard-boiled detective fashion, with the help of Danny and Gil, Lionel's investigations begin to shake things up.
From a matchbook in Frank's coats pocket Lionel gets the address of The King Rooster jazz club up in Harlem. From poking around there at the club, he gets the name of Laura Rose. Rose is connected with Gabby Horowitz and the fight against urban renewal. Lionel begins to see patterns.The urban renewal protests bring commissioner Moses Randolph into the tale and of course it all leads to the on ramp of the expressway to Noirsville.
Noirsville
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| Leslie Mann as Julia Minna |
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| Cherry Jones as Gabby Horowitz |
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| Bobby Cannavale as Tony Vermonte |
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| Dallas Roberts as Danny Fantl lt., with Lionel |
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| Tail Fins |
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| Tail Fins at the King Rooster |
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| Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Laura Rose |
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| Jones Beach water tower |
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| Great South Bay |
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| Lionel with Willem Dafoe as Paul Randolph |
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| Michael K. Williams as Trumpet Man |
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| '57 Chevy |
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| Probably a Tobay, Gilgo, or Oak beach bungalow |
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| Robert Wisdom as Billy Rose |
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| Jerry Weldon - King Rooster Saxophonist |
Norton and cinematographer Pope lensed a convincing film with a lot of style that evokes at the same time both Classic Film Noir and Neo Noir masterpiece Chinatown. The film looks like it was filmed at the fin de decade 1950s, and I should know, because I was a kid back then and living in those same neighborhoods depicted.
The only thing missing are the olfactive components, the smell of fresh bread wafting from the Italian bakery, the smoky aroma from a street vendor's roasting chestnuts mixed with car exhausts, and sour reek of rotting vegetables from garbage cans.
Motherless Brooklyn gets right what Last Exit to Brooklyn, a noir-ish 1989 German-British drama film directed by Uli Edel got wrong. Edel's film comes off as a bizarre parallel universe Brooklyn with convincing characters juxtaposed against unbelievable ones. But that's another review.
The score by Daniel Pemberton with jazz pieces interpreted by Wynton Marsalis is a beautiful accompaniment to those images. All the actors do an impeccable job, Norton is quite convincing in depicting his affliction, the rest of the cast is a wonderful ensemble of confidant actors who slip into their characters like you would slip into an old pair of slippers.
The film stars Edward Norton as Lionel Essrog, Bruce Willis (Die Hard, Billy Bathgate, Pulp Fiction, The Fifth Element, Sin City) as Frank Minna, Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Laura Rose
Alec Baldwin (Miami Blues, The Getaway, ) as Moses Randolph, Willem Dafoe (To Live and Die in L.A., Wild at Heart, Auto Focus) plays his brother Paul Randolph. Bobby Cannavale (Boardwalk Empire (TV Series), Lovelace, I, Tonya, The Irishman) as Tony Vermonte, Cherry Jones as Gabby Horowitz, Michael K. Williams (Boardwalk Empire (TV Series) as Trumpet Man, Leslie Mann (Last Man Standing) as Julia Minna, Ethan Suplee (Chasing Amy, Twin Peaks (TV Series)) as Gilbert Coney, Dallas Roberts as Danny Fantl, Josh Pais as William Lieberman, Robert Wisdom as Billy Rose, Fisher Stevens as Lou.
Screencaps are from an online streamer. Bravo, not bad Ed a 7-8/10. Make another.
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