Gravesend (1997)

After his teacher at NYU had told him in no uncertain terms that maybe film school and a career in film wasn’t for him 19 year old Salvatore Stabile, armed with a $5,000 budget that was left for him by his recently deceased grandmother, set out to prove to himself and to disheartening teachers that he was a filmmaker.

Gravesend was the story of four friends in their early twenties going nowhere. Trapped in the endless desolation of one of Brooklyn’s toughest neighbourhoods, their night are spent bickering and chest beating in the basement of the house that belongs to ray (Michael Parducci) and his bullying older brother. After an altercation involving Ray’s brother and hot-headed Zane (TonyTucci) the four (rounded out by shy Mikey and the slow witted chicken) are left with a dilemma of disposal and a need to find $500 fast.

Released at a time when the crime/drama genre was still riding the post Tarantino/Pulp Fiction wave of dialogue heavy thrillers with nods to black comedy Gravesend, although marketed as “post Tarantino” on release, took more from Martin Scorsese’s seminal “Mean Streets” capturing the violent intensity of the central characters lives that exist in the empty abandoned streets that are sometimes found in the early hours of even the biggest, overpopulated cities. New York is Stabile’s home and he uses the gritty urban streets of his neighbourhood to great effect in terms of dialogue and mood just as Tarantino’s early work was defined by the seedy underbelly of his geographical muse California.

Stabile’s modest budget and his use of a cast of unknown’s works to great effect giving Gravesend at times a fly on the wall feel and a sense of unease because of the unfamiliarity of the faces on screen. Performance wise Michael parducci’s Ray is the heart of the film, a caring body, during times when self-preservation should be the top of his list he puts his friends first as they are his family, more than his long departed parents and the brother he clashed with so often ever were.

The Film however, belongs to Tony Tucci’s Zane. A pressure cooker of violence and never suppressed rage, Zane makes every bad situation that occurs in Gravesend that much worse. Fuelled by inferiority and a constant self-affirmation of dumb alpha-maleness that is his ultimate downfall. Zane is the tension and also at times the comic relief that is welcomed yet is never out of place during Gravesend.

After Gravesend’s release most of the cast and crew drifted into obscurity rather than build on the positivity of the films reception. Stabile formed a steady career in TV writing and producing and his C.V includes the Sopranos, Rescue me and ABC’s Revenge which aired last year. Gravesend however will always be a time capsule of a 19 year old Stabile’s raw talent and defiant Fuck you to film school teachers everywhere.