Brooklyn Lobster
Brooklyn Lobster opens with a bunch of black-and-white photographs on the wall accompanied by 60s pop music and it sets a nostalgia tone for the entire movie.
Writer/director Kevin Jordan penned the script based on his own family’s lobster shop in Brooklyn. The movie follows the family patriarch Frank Giorgio’s struggle to keep Giorgio’s Lobster Farm under his family control after 65 years in business. It all happens in a week’s time, but it shows a way of life that is gradually dying in this country. Giorgio’s Lobster Farm is a small mom-and-pop family business that strives to survive in current conglomerate corporate culture. It is a place that unfortunately may become foreign to our future generations – a work place where people treat each other like a family member. While watching this movie, one cannot help rooting for these underdogs.
The movie stars mostly unknown actors with two exceptions: Danny Aiello as Frank and Jane Curtin as family matriarch Maureen. These two veteran actors are absolutely joy to watch on screen. It has been too long since we last saw Aiello in theaters. Whether it is the pizzeria owner Sal in Do the Right Thing or Madonna’s dad in her music video Papa Don’t Preach, playing working class Italian American patriarchs is his specialty and once again he has given a first rate performance. Through Aiello, the audience can feel the stiffness in Frank’s back, his physical aging and his fierce determination to keep his business intact. We can see why his wife Maureen has decided to leave him, but under his rough exterior there is so much gentleness for his family and his employees. We are all familiar with Curtin’s comic genius during her years on Saturday Night Live and 3rd Rock from the Sun, but Brooklyn Lobster has showcased her dramatic acting chops. Maureen is a woman who, after years of hard work to keep a small business alive, has finally decided to enjoy a peaceful life on her own, but as in life, sometimes our connection to our family is for a lifetime and cannot be easily severed. Most times Curtin simply conveys Maureen’s state of mind via a smile or a look, but it has a strong pull on one’s heart string.
Jordan is a native New Yorker and his love for the city, especially for its working class people, shines through on screen. His New York is what makes the city special, a cultural melting pot boiling with Italian Americans, Chinese Americans, African Americans, Arab Americans and all other ethnicities. Jordan is a protégé of American cinema realism master, Martin Scorsese (this movie and Jordan’s early work are all presented by Scorsese). In this movie, Jordan has kept Scorsese’ minimum realistic approach and shot it with quiet subtlety. Lobsters in this film are not only all the main characters’ livelihood, but also in many ways reflect their trapped situation. In Brooklyn Lobster Frank’s son Michael dates an uptown girl Kerry. The movie constantly contrasts blue collar regular people against white collar upper class society and hard working small business owners against indifferent Wall Street money makers. Jordan does not make any overt statements about the differences in their life styles; he merely shows us Kerry’s parents and uncle’s tony town houses vs. Frank’s dilapidated store front; the superficial air kisses and insincerity at Kerry’s uncle’s party vs. the warm embraces and openness among the Giorgio family members. Brooklyn Lobster makes one lament all those dwindling family operations that offer customers not only quality products, but also a close friendship and personal service.
Brooklyn Lobster is a type of movie that has also become a rarity in our society. The studios are too busy churning out productions that may entertain us for two hours while we are in the theaters and they have virtually stopped making movies that mirror our daily lives and make us think even after walking out of the theaters. Fortunately independent filmmakers like Jordan have been persistent like Frank and keep creating movies that are true to their hearts.
Writer/director Kevin Jordan penned the script based on his own family’s lobster shop in Brooklyn. The movie follows the family patriarch Frank Giorgio’s struggle to keep Giorgio’s Lobster Farm under his family control after 65 years in business. It all happens in a week’s time, but it shows a way of life that is gradually dying in this country. Giorgio’s Lobster Farm is a small mom-and-pop family business that strives to survive in current conglomerate corporate culture. It is a place that unfortunately may become foreign to our future generations – a work place where people treat each other like a family member. While watching this movie, one cannot help rooting for these underdogs.
The movie stars mostly unknown actors with two exceptions: Danny Aiello as Frank and Jane Curtin as family matriarch Maureen. These two veteran actors are absolutely joy to watch on screen. It has been too long since we last saw Aiello in theaters. Whether it is the pizzeria owner Sal in Do the Right Thing or Madonna’s dad in her music video Papa Don’t Preach, playing working class Italian American patriarchs is his specialty and once again he has given a first rate performance. Through Aiello, the audience can feel the stiffness in Frank’s back, his physical aging and his fierce determination to keep his business intact. We can see why his wife Maureen has decided to leave him, but under his rough exterior there is so much gentleness for his family and his employees. We are all familiar with Curtin’s comic genius during her years on Saturday Night Live and 3rd Rock from the Sun, but Brooklyn Lobster has showcased her dramatic acting chops. Maureen is a woman who, after years of hard work to keep a small business alive, has finally decided to enjoy a peaceful life on her own, but as in life, sometimes our connection to our family is for a lifetime and cannot be easily severed. Most times Curtin simply conveys Maureen’s state of mind via a smile or a look, but it has a strong pull on one’s heart string.
Jordan is a native New Yorker and his love for the city, especially for its working class people, shines through on screen. His New York is what makes the city special, a cultural melting pot boiling with Italian Americans, Chinese Americans, African Americans, Arab Americans and all other ethnicities. Jordan is a protégé of American cinema realism master, Martin Scorsese (this movie and Jordan’s early work are all presented by Scorsese). In this movie, Jordan has kept Scorsese’ minimum realistic approach and shot it with quiet subtlety. Lobsters in this film are not only all the main characters’ livelihood, but also in many ways reflect their trapped situation. In Brooklyn Lobster Frank’s son Michael dates an uptown girl Kerry. The movie constantly contrasts blue collar regular people against white collar upper class society and hard working small business owners against indifferent Wall Street money makers. Jordan does not make any overt statements about the differences in their life styles; he merely shows us Kerry’s parents and uncle’s tony town houses vs. Frank’s dilapidated store front; the superficial air kisses and insincerity at Kerry’s uncle’s party vs. the warm embraces and openness among the Giorgio family members. Brooklyn Lobster makes one lament all those dwindling family operations that offer customers not only quality products, but also a close friendship and personal service.
Brooklyn Lobster is a type of movie that has also become a rarity in our society. The studios are too busy churning out productions that may entertain us for two hours while we are in the theaters and they have virtually stopped making movies that mirror our daily lives and make us think even after walking out of the theaters. Fortunately independent filmmakers like Jordan have been persistent like Frank and keep creating movies that are true to their hearts.
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