The Wannabe

source: The Wannabe

This is a well-done film about a couple of petty criminals (not too bright) that end up robbing social club card games, supposedly to get money so they can move to Hawaii. It's well-acted; a good character study. It's based on the lives of Thomas and Rosemarie Uva, whose spree started in 1991 and ended in December 1992. Another director did the same story as the movie, Rob the Mob.

It's not the Godfather nor is it Goodfellas. Wannabe stands on its own as an excellent character study. Amara plays Thomas, a wannabe mobster. Arnette is Rose, his supporting wife. Enjoy this movie for what it is.

The Wannabe or Rob The Mob your pick for Me Rob the Mob much better Actors.

If you can accept Patricia Arquette as a New Yorker with a Brooklyn brogue, you might enjoy this slow-moving look at a couple of losers who decide to rob the Mob. There was nothing new here. If you saw Rob the Mob a year earlier then you have already seen this film. The difference is Rob the Mob was more of a dark-humored comedy, and The Wannabe is dead serious. Too serious to be exact. I couldn't sympathize with the leads one bit.

So seems I ought to write my first review on IMDb for this movie's seriously overlooked cult-potential..... It's a film for 'cineastes' with more to do with subjectivity and indulgence than the mafia... Film students from the 1960s through the 1990s ought to love it - in no particular order there's hints of Godard, Rohmer, early Scorsese, da Sica, Tati, Tarantino et al. So in terms of 'subject' the film is actually ABOUT film, about subjectivity and self-indulgence, belonging to a family of cultural reflections like The King of Comedy, The Dreamers, Harold and Maude, Dog Day Afternoon, The Master or Be Kind Rewind. But is it good enough, is it entertaining enough to keep the company of the genres it pastiches? Probably not quite, but maybe it's today's society that has moved on making irony more important than hope. Or maybe it's the art film that has moved on, now that most technical innovations like jump-cutting are now back-in-the-day. Or maybe the script is a little loose, and the technical innovation a little meagre. So the film can be rated at 5/10 it's a 'wotever' experience, or else at 9/10 it's an early film by the next Tarantino, or an old-fashioned film like Truffaut that will mature with age. Remembering there are still some French women that adore Truffaut as a national treasure 50 years on, it would be lazy NOT to watch this movie, if you know something about film history.

I thought this was going to be a mafia related story. Instead, it's more about a weirdo and his pathetic life of mafia adoration. Slow paced and psichological. Depressing story of a pathetic couple of (real) characters. Took me an effort to finish it. Towards the end I just wanted them dead as soon as possible, so it could be over already.

I am not sure what to think about this movie. It shows an obsessed man trying everything he can to worm his way into the Gambino Crime family in New York in 1992. He is obviously delusional and focused on his quest and gets involved with a women who enables him instead of helping him find a way out of his fantasy. The story follows Thomas as he spirals out of control on his way down the rabbit hole. With the Scorsese name attached this got made but the writer/director Nick Sandow did not do anyone any favours as this could have been much better. I usually do not like it when the same person writes and directs as they are too close to the subject and can't see obvious errors that a fresh set of eyes might catch. Plus, they often fall in love with their writing and leave in certain scenes and scenarios that don't necessarily move the story along. If it does not advance the story...leave it out.

"Don't write the history books yet." Thomas (Piazza) has become obsessed with the trial of John Gotti and thinks it is his mission to find a way to get him off. When his plan falls through He tries to find another way to become a wise-guy. The only way he can think to do this is to begin robbing mafia hangouts. Together him and his wife Rose (Arquette) complete a string of hold-ups that finally gets him noticed. I am a huge fan of any type of mafia movie. There was a fantastic movie called Rob The Mob that came out a few years ago that dealt with this same story. Like that one this one is also very good and I really liked it. There were some differences between the two but the biggest one was that Thomas was played as someone who talks a big game, but is different when he is in action in this movie. To me that little change really added to the realism of this and added to the overall feel of the movie. The acting is really good in this, but Piazza's portrayal is really what makes the movie and I highly recommend this. Overall, a very good movie that really makes you relate to Thomas, something that is usually hard to do in a mafia movie. I give this a high B+.

It does not get more blue collar than The Wannabe, a no trills mob movie about a Mob geeks obsession with the John Gotti trails of the early 90s. Vincent Piazza plays the mob geek, Thomas. his performance in the movie was pretty well done. His psychotic nature just kept escalating as the movie progressed which made him entertaining to focus on. Also like the performance of Patricia Arquette, who played Thomas' equally touched girlfriend, Rose. I felt a certain dignity to her performance that made you feel sorry for Rose instead of sad. Overall the movie was a very disturbing tale of Thomas and Rose, a weird version of Bonnie and Clyde, in a movie that feels like a low rate version of Taxi Driver. A decent indi film to look at.