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City Island - Andy Garcia, Julianna Margulies, Steven Strait, Raymond De Felitta

Threat advisory: Elevated - Significant risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

City Island is a hilarious and touching tale about a family whose comfortable co-existence is upended by surprising revelations of past secrets and present day lies.

Vince Rizzo (Andy Garcia), a family man who makes his living as a corrections officer, 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.

Theatrical propaganda posters

Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

Film comedy drama New York prison family guard secrets lies actor parent relationship smoking Marlon Brando

Persons of interest

Andy Garcia .... Vince Rizzo
Julianna Margulies .... Joyce Rizzo
Steven Strait .... Tony Nardella
Dominik García-Lorido .... Vivian Rizzo
Ezra Miller .... Vince Jr
Emily Mortimer .... Molly
Alan Arkin .... Michael Malakov
Sharon Angela .... Tanya
Curtiss Cook .... Matt Curniff
Hope Glendon-Ross .... Cheryl Plinoff
Adam Larrabee .... Goombah
Carrie Baker Reynolds .... Denise
Raymond De Felitta .... Screenwriter
Raymond De Felitta .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

City Island official movie sites:

Australia
International

City Island film production notes
City Island movie trailers:

Awards and film festivals:

Tribeca Film Festival 2009: Won: Audience Award

Studios and distributors:

Anchor Bay

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

Ok, so Steven Strait is a big hunk of steaming sex. He looks like a little boy trapped in a porn-star's body. As soon as you see him you just know he's going to take his shirt off, and the wait is worth it. He's also got some fire in there. He oozes passion, sensitivity and confidence.

But there are other actors in the movie and they're all good, too, they just don't have as sympathetic a character to play with. And they aren't as hot (if prison does nothing else for you, you certainly have time to work out).

The story of City Island is one of secrets and lies, and in any good story, a secret must be revealed and a lie must be confronted. (This makes the story a morality play; the truth will out.) In this family, the only person with no secrets, who tells no lies, is Tony Nardella (Steven Strait), whose secrets and lies have been taken away by the state (that's another good use for prisons [Correctional facilities. - Director of Intelligence.]) That makes him the only person who can look on the family with an objective eye; he is an outsider in more ways than one. Therefore, he is the catalyst for the unravelling of the carpet under which the lies have been swept. (How's that for a metaphor? Hee, hee, hee.) Watching the closet doors slamming open provides the drama for the piece. It's good. Everyone gets outed. Heh, heh. serves them right. Lies = bad, truth = good.

There's enough comedy inherent in the story that it rolls along quite lightly (when a kid is watching food porn you know no-one's going to die of cancer). You won't be challenged by anything in the movie but you will enjoy it.

The comedy, drama movie City Island is directed by Raymond De Felitta and stars Andy Garcia, Julianna Margulies, Steven Strait.