Kathrine Narducci Movies
- 2006
HBO split the sixth and final season of its serial mafia drama The Sopranos into two halves, spaced 10 months apart: the first half (episodes 1-12) aired from mid-March through early June of 2006; a hiatus followed between episodes 12 and 13, before the series picked up again for its final nine episodes on April 8, 2007, purportedly thanks to overwhelming audience demand for an extension. As the season begins, Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) is plagued by problem after problem at home: though he has made peace with wife Carmela (Edie Falco), and daughter Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) is relatively well-adjusted and happy, attending college and living with fiancée Finn De Trolio (Will Janowitz), Tony's son, A.J. (Robert Iler) is a complete slacker and layabout who has just failed out of college and seems hesitant to accomplish anything of merit. Meanwhile, Tony finds himself saddled with a new captain, Phil Leotardo (Frank Vincent) who expresses more hesitation over "working" him than his incarcerated predecessor, Johnny Sacks (Vince Curatola). Complicating matters are two employees: Tony's soldier Eugene Pontecorvo (Robert Funaro), who attempts to buy his way out of the syndicate via an inheritance, and the homosexual captain Vito Spatafore (Joe Gannascoli) who comes out of the closet and ends up being spotted in a leather bar - then is knocked off by a member of the family, which leads to the death of a Lieutenant and sparks a tidal wave of mob violence. In another subplot, aspiring screenwriter Christopher (Michael Imperioli), Tony's cousin, devises an idea for a gangster picture which he describes as "The Godfather meets Saw," and heads off to Hollywood to pitch it to Ben Kingsley. The season cliffhanger, however, involves Uncle Junior (Dominic Chianese), an elderly man suffering from extreme senility who mistakenly draws a gun and plugs Tony in the stomach, sending him into a coma - leaving consigliere Silvio Dante (Steven Van Zandt of The E Street Band) to tend to family business. This, in turn, yields several sequences where Tony wanders around in a dream state, and contemplates his own mortality. The second half of the season has Christopher continuing his strenuous efforts to have his epic (which he entitled Cleaver) produced, the absence of Johnny Sack leaving an ongoing void of power in the syndicate, and Tony again coming to terms with aging and mortality, while he struggles (as ever) to balance personal and professional demands. Guest stars in the 2007 episodes include: Sydney Pollack, Tim Daly, Daniel Baldwin and Geraldo Rivera. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, (more)
Raymond De Felitta directs this warm, colorful tale about a blue collar dreamer who gets more than he bargained for after buying a two-family house. Set during the 1950s in Staten Island, the film charts the financial failures of Buddy (Michael Rispoli), a nice-guy entrepreneur who has perpetual bad luck. While he was in the army, he sang songs on stage to bolster troop morale. During one performance, he received a warm reception from none other than Arthur Godfrey, who invited him to audition when he got back to the U.S. After the war, Buddy's crushingly pragmatic wife Estelle (Katherine Narducci,) along with her very traditional parents, dissuade him from a life in showbiz. After a decade of living with Estelle's parents and failing repeatedly at one get-rich-quick scheme after another, Buddy buys a rundown house with the idea of refurbishing the second floor for living quarters and the first for a pizzeria where he can sing. Estelle grudgingly goes along with it, secretly hoping that this plan will fail so disastrously that he will stop dreaming and lead a "normal" life. Not until he finalizes the purchase does Buddy realize that the house has a pair of squatters: Jim (Kevin Conway), a drunken Irish immigrant, and his much younger, very pregnant girlfriend Mary (Kelly Macdonald). Buddy tries to evict the recalcitrant drunkard, but he refuses to leave. Just as matters are about to come to fisticuffs, Mary goes into labor. To the surprise of everyone, the child is of mixed raced -- the product of a brief tryst that Mary had with an African-American man a while back. Disgusted and disappointed, Jim shuffles off never to be seen. Buddy hasn't quite the heart to evict a young single mother, nor the strength to resist his wife's perpetual nagging, so he quietly pays for a room in a neighborhood boarding house. Though Mary is initially very mistrustful of Buddy's intentions, the two slowly realize that they are in fact soul mates. This film was highly praised at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Rispoli, Kelly MacDonald, (more)
- 1999
In the series' third episode, a crime family confronts the possibility of a future power struggle. Meadow Soprano (Jamie-Lynn Sigler), the daughter of New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), takes crystal methamphetamines with a friend in order to help them study for the SATs. Tony visits his dying Mafia superior, Jackie Aprile (Michael Rispoli), in the hospital and presents him with a gift: a hooker dressed as a nurse. Mikey Palmice (Al Sapienza), the top lieutenant of Tony's rival and uncle, Junior (Dominic Chianese), is convinced that Tony will make a grab for top boss after Jackie's death, and he begins to convince Junior that his nephew should be whacked. Tony, his henchman Paulie Walnuts (Tony Sirico), and another Soprano lieutenant, Silvio Dante (Steven Van Zandt), deal with a Hasidic family of motel owners who refuse to pay protection money. After hiring family friends Artie Bucco (John Ventimiglia) and his wife Charmaine (Kathrine Narducci) to cater a party, Tony's wife, Carmela (Edie Falco), learns that her husband slept with Charmaine in high school. Soprano associate Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli) tries to make a botched truck hijacking right by returning stolen goods to Junior, but the mob capo still orders Christopher's pal, Brendan Filone (Anthony de Sando), murdered and Christopher to be threatened. Airing on January 24, 1999, "Denial, Anger, Acceptance" was directed by independent feature filmmaker Nick Gomez (New Jersey Drive, Illtown). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
The key figure in this two-part TV mob miniseries is Mafia snitch Sammy "The Bull" Gravano (Nicholas Turturro). Gravano ratted on John Gotti (Tom Sizemore), who manipulated the 1985 murder of mob boss Paul Castellano (Abe Vigoda). Gravano is seen rising in the mob ranks through various blood-brother ceremonies, coercions, threats, family meetings, and confrontations over loyalties. In part two, informant Gravano blows the whistle on Gotti. Turturro, as Gravano, also narrates the drama, which manages to alter accuracy and bend history behind this disclaimer: "Certain events in this film that are based on fact are interpretive, certain characters are composites or have been fictionalized, and some names and locations have been changed." Premiered May 10, 1998 on NBC. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nicholas Turturro, Tom Sizemore, (more)
- 1998
The prosecution of a Mafia murder faces a stumbling block in the form of a Mr. Dobbs (Philip Bosco), the lawyer of an elderly mob don. Dobbs argues that his client is mentally and physically unfit to stand trial -- and all evidence suggests that the attorney is telling the truth. Adding to the intrigue is the dead witness, and the all-too-eager confession of a two-bit hoodlum. The D.A.'s office arrives at the truth through the "magic" of videotape -- and a steady finger on the slow-motion button. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1997
It looks like a clear-cut case of suicide when a young woman plunges off a bridge. However, disturbing questions are raised during the ensuing investigation thanks to the evasive behavior of the witnesses. The subsequent prosecution boils down to a case of arson, a probable instance of blackmail, and a grown-up version of the traditional "big bully." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1995
Simone (Jimmy Smits) manages to catch a suspected serial rapist, but his triumph is short-lived. After a violent confrontation with her battling parents, Diane (Kim Delaney) has trouble remaining sober. The victim of a shooting has been attacked several times and doesn't know why; investigating this mystery, Medavoy (Gordon Clapp) is teamed with Lesniak (Justine Miceli) -- who makes a show-stopping revelation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1994
The emphasis is more on law than order as the viewer follows detectives Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Logan (Chris Noth) through an extremely eventful 24 hours. Their unusually heavy case load includes five murders -- all unrelated -- and a violent, domestic quarrel, in which the husband gets the worst of it. Evidently, this episode made quite an impression on the series' producers; not only was it referred to in the tenth-season Law & Order episode "Entitled," but its memory was also invoked in a first-season episode of the spin-off series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1993
- R
- Add A Bronx Tale to Queue
Robert De Niro made his directorial debut with this expanded adaptation of Chazz Palminteri's one-character play. DeNiro's role of Lorenzo Anello, an Italian-America bus driver, is secondary to the part of his son Calogero, played by young Francis Capra. The top dog in Calogero's Bronx neighborhood is flashy "wiseguy" Sonny (Chazz Palminteri). When the boy witnesses Sonny commit a murder, he honors the code of the streets and refuses to tell the cops. Sonny befriends him and introduces the impressionable youngster to the creature comforts that mob connections can bring. But though he idolizes Sonny, the boy loves and respects his decent, honest father. It takes a major tragedy for the 17-year-old boy (now played by Lillo Brancato) to decide his true course in life. Though titled A Bronx Tale and set in the Bronx of the 1960s, the film was actually shot in the somewhat safer environs of Brooklyn and Queens. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert De Niro, Chazz Palminteri, (more)
- TVMA
- Add Sopranos: Season Six - Part 1 [4 Discs] to QueueAdd Sopranos: Season Six - Part 1 [4 Discs] to top of Queue
HBO split the sixth and final season of its serial mafia drama The Sopranos into two halves, spaced 10 months apart: the first half (episodes 1-12) aired from mid-March through early June of 2006; a hiatus followed between episodes 12 and 13, before the series picked up again for its final nine episodes on April 8, 2007, purportedly thanks to overwhelming audience demand for an extension. As the season begins, Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) is plagued by problem after problem at home: though he has made peace with wife Carmela (Edie Falco), and daughter Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) is relatively well-adjusted and happy, attending college and living with fiancée Finn De Trolio (Will Janowitz), Tony's son, A.J. (Robert Iler) is a complete slacker and layabout who has just failed out of college and seems hesitant to accomplish anything of merit. Meanwhile, Tony finds himself saddled with a new captain, Phil Leotardo (Frank Vincent) who expresses more hesitation over "working" him than his incarcerated predecessor, Johnny Sacks (Vince Curatola). Complicating matters are two employees: Tony's soldier Eugene Pontecorvo (Robert Funaro), who attempts to buy his way out of the syndicate via an inheritance, and the homosexual captain Vito Spatafore (Joe Gannascoli) who comes out of the closet and ends up being spotted in a leather bar - then is knocked off by a member of the family, which leads to the death of a Lieutenant and sparks a tidal wave of mob violence. In another subplot, aspiring screenwriter Christopher (Michael Imperioli), Tony's cousin, devises an idea for a gangster picture which he describes as "The Godfather meets Saw," and heads off to Hollywood to pitch it to Ben Kingsley. The season cliffhanger, however, involves Uncle Junior (Dominic Chianese), an elderly man suffering from extreme senility who mistakenly draws a gun and plugs Tony in the stomach, sending him into a coma - leaving consigliere Silvio Dante (Steven Van Zandt of The E Street Band) to tend to family business. This, in turn, yields several sequences where Tony wanders around in a dream state, and contemplates his own mortality. The second half of the season has Christopher continuing his strenuous efforts to have his epic (which he entitled Cleaver) produced, the absence of Johnny Sack leaving an ongoing void of power in the syndicate, and Tony again coming to terms with aging and mortality, while he struggles (as ever) to balance personal and professional demands. Guest stars in the 2007 episodes include: Sydney Pollack, Tim Daly, Daniel Baldwin and Geraldo Rivera.
