Ray Romano is still best remembered for the comedy series “Everybody Loves Raymond” in which he played an Italian-American sports reporter from Long Island with everyday problems. Now Ray has moved from Long Island to Queens, stripped off his whites and put on a working class blue collar in a humorous drama he wrote and directed himself. Now he is Leo Russo, a middle-aged Italian-American, a kind of curmudgeonly guy who works in a family construction company where his entire family is employed and where he assumed his high school graduate son Matthew, aka Sticks, would also work.
Although he seems completely antisocial, withdrawn, almost on the edge of the autistic spectrum, Sticks is a first-class basketball player who will be offered a scholarship at the University of Philadelphia. However, to everyone’s surprise, young Sticks, especially his father and mother Angela (Laurie Metcalf, who is also best remembered for her role in one series or as Jackie Harris in Roseanne), will one day appear with a girl. And to the pretty, charming and eloquent Dana (Sadie Stanley), with whom he will fall in love the way kids his age fall in love. But while it is a fatal relationship for Sticks, Dani doesn’t really take it seriously, especially since in a few months she is also graduating from school and planning a trip to America.
After Dani leaves Sticks, and Dani gets colder and less interested in both basketball and the scholarship, the caring father will try to smooth over their relationship, at least for a while until the enrollments are over. And “Somewhere in Queens” was one of those life-long, bittersweet films, a humorous drama about facing fears, but also about how parents sometimes try to heal their complexes and failures through their own children. Although both Leo and Angela have devoted their whole lives to their son and are parents to be desired, when the old man realizes that his son is a really promising basketball player and that he could have a career, he seems to subordinate everything to Sticks succeeding. And without asking him what he wants from life and what his plans are.
Romano here really seems to radiate energy like from his famous series and once again he is that typical father who would please everyone, and good intentions often turn into a complete disaster. Once again, there is a strong trump card and banter at the expense of loud Italian-American families, where all generations meet on Sundays for a joint lunch and argue and shout, and Dani will suddenly enter a world completely unknown to her. “Somewhere in Queens” had its premiere (and where else!) at the festival in New York’s Tribeca and it’s a cute, light humorous drama.