'10th & Wolf'

A A A Comments By Michael Atkinson Tuesday, Aug 15 2006

photo: Koch Lorber Films

Brother hoods: Nurettin and Erdal Celik

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10th & Wolf
Directed by Robert Moresco
THINKFilm, in release, Village East

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The trifling, cliché-choked trophy indie Robert Moresco got to make after the success of Crash (which he co-wrote), 10th & Wolf is a hellish and unconvincing celebration of badda-bing-ness, supposedly based on a story by Joseph Pistone, the real-life "Donnie Brasco" (though Pistone's name appears nowhere in the credits). After being raised in the mob, Tommy (James Marsden) joins the Marines and then, at the behest of feds, returns to the Philly neighborhood where his dim brother Vincent (Brad Renfro) is getting knee-deep in shit and his cold-blooded cousin Joey (Giovanni Ribisi) is already some kind of rising goodfella. Whackings proliferate; out of spite, rage, or greed, the boys' mom (ultra-floozie Lesley Ann Warren) enables the situation; and flashbacks to dunderheaded Dennis Hopper and Val Kilmer cameos enliven the muck. Mostly, though, it's a nonstop caricature fest; one cannot decide whom Ribisi is inadvertently parodying with his grimaces and glowerings, Robert De Niro or himself. (Marsden, without his Cyclops shades, has the dullest pretty-boy face to never grace a Calvin Klein billboard.) "Young Hollywood" neo-aristocracy posturing like gun-crazy street urchins—I'd rather watch Growing Up Gotti for the first time.