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City Island (2009)

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Average Rating: 6.8/10
Reviews Counted: 98
Fresh: 79 | Rotten: 19

Raymond De Felitta combines warmth, humanity, and a natural sense of humor, and is abetted by Andy Garcia and an excellent ensemble cast.

Average Rating: 7.2/10
Critic Reviews: 29
Fresh: 25 | Rotten: 4

Raymond De Felitta combines warmth, humanity, and a natural sense of humor, and is abetted by Andy Garcia and an excellent ensemble cast.

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Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 27,528

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Movie Info

A dysfunctional family living on a picturesque island in the Bronx spares no expense in avoiding the truth about their messed-up lives in writer/director Raymond de Felitta's dark family comedy. The family patriarch, Vince (Andy Garcia) is a prison guard who is secretly plotting a new career as an actor. Meanwhile, as Vince takes acting lessons on the down low, his daughter moonlights as a stripper and his younger namesake harbors a secret fetish that involves the family's 300-pound neighbor.

PG-13, 1 hr. 40 min.

Comedy

Directed By: Raymond De Felitta

Written By: Raymond De Felitta

In Theaters: Mar 19, 2010 Wide

On DVD: Aug 24, 2010

Box Office:$6.7M

Anchor Bay Entertainment

Andy Garcia demonstrates real comic chops in this charming comedy of family dysfunction.

July 6, 2010 Comment

Frank Scheck

Hollywood Reporter

Top Critic

This is the kind of movie that could easily sink into comedy hijinks as broad and flat as pappardelle. But it doesn't. De Felitta... makes no apologies for the outrageousness of the coincidences and gloriously knotty relationships and secrets.

April 29, 2010 Full Review Source: Film.com

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Jonathan F. Richards

Film.com

Top Critic

Writer-director Raymond De Felitta has cut together a frustrating comedy, with the misunderstandings piling up like kindling for a bonfire that his movie never lights.

April 28, 2010 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel

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Roger Moore

Orlando Sentinel

Top Critic

A funny, heartfelt look at families, relationships and the lies that prop them up as much as tear them down.

April 21, 2010 Full Review Source: Arizona Republic

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Bill Goodykoontz

Arizona Republic

Top Critic

Writer-director Raymond De Felitta is essentially offering a kinky-comic New Yawk version of a Greek tragedy here, and even if the whole thing is pretty implausible, it's also fairly entertaining.

April 16, 2010 Full Review Source: Detroit News

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Tom Long

Detroit News

Top Critic

[A] noisy, eccentric, bizarrely lovable film.

April 9, 2010 Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle

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Amy Biancolli

Houston Chronicle

Top Critic

Andy Garcia is a pleasant enough guide to almost rate a visit to this City, but all the conflict here lies on the surface.

September 14, 2010 Full Review Source: Shared Darkness

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Brent Simon

Shared Darkness

an enjoyably offbeat slice of amusingly dysfunctional family life

September 9, 2010 Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk

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James Kendrick

Q Network Film Desk

An enjoyable film.

September 3, 2010 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid

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Jeffrey M. Anderson

Combustible Celluloid

Wacky film makes smoking, teen fetish part of the joke.

August 24, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media

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S. Jhoanna Robledo

Common Sense Media

De Felitta chose well by casting 24-year-old actor Steven Strait, who gives the exasperated convict humor, charm, and sex appeal - something that doesn't go unnoticed by Joyce, or many of the women in the audience as well.

August 11, 2010 Full Review Source: San Diego Union-Tribune

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Alison Gang

San Diego Union-Tribune

Melding the abundant misunderstandings of a Shakespeare comedy with the New York wit of a Neil Simon play, City Island is a boisterous charmer with a big heart.

July 26, 2010 Full Review Source: Daily Express

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Allan Hunter

Daily Express

Everybody has a secret and is too dumb to work out what those secrets are, a specious bit of plotting designed to pad out the running time of this shrill farce beyond its natural sit-com length.

July 26, 2010 Full Review Source: Scotsman

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Alistair Harkness

Scotsman

This feature might work better as a television series, but Garcia himself gives the picture some much-needed ballast.

July 22, 2010 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK]

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Peter Bradshaw

Guardian [UK]

There's nothing earth-shatteringly new, but you do end up wishing the characters well, and I was happy to have spent time with them.

July 22, 2010 Full Review Source: Daily Mail [UK]

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Daily Mail [UK]

I won't make great claims for Raymond De Felitta's film - it hardly makes them for itself - but I will say this for it: as an ensemble acting workout, it exceeds expectations from the top down.

July 22, 2010 Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph

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Tim Robey

Daily Telegraph

An at-times marvellous muddle of high farce and low-brow chuckles.

July 22, 2010 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine

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Angie Errigo

Empire Magazine

This isn't a revolution in filmmaking, but a rare kind of comedy where the actors keep it real.

July 22, 2010 Full Review Source: Digital Spy

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Stella Papamichael

Digital Spy

The script, by dyed-in-the-wool New York indie filmmaker Raymond De Felitta, is like someone's homework for a screenwriting course. The secrets aren't interesting and you know a big showdown at the end is a given.

July 22, 2010 Full Review Source: News of the World

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Robbie Collin

News of the World

Garcia's gift for comedy is a true revelation.

July 22, 2010 Full Review Source: Radio Times

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Stella Papamichael

Radio Times

Sweet and satisfying.

July 22, 2010 Full Review Source: Sky Movies

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Tim Evans

Sky Movies

Impressively directed and superbly written, this is an emotionally engaging, warm-hearted and frequently funny family drama with terrific central performances from Andy Garcia and Julianna Margulies.

July 22, 2010 Full Review Source: ViewLondon

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Matthew Turner

ViewLondon

Its revelations come too early, and many of its scenes are too long, but City Island is kept afloat by its unusual location and fine-tuned performances.

July 19, 2010 Full Review Source: Film4

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Anton Bitel

Film4

I would say that if you have a distaste for indie comedies about quirky families that co-star Alan Arkin, think twice.

July 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Philadelphia Daily News

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Gary Thompson

Philadelphia Daily News

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for City Island

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Fiery, loud, and funny! Everyone in the Rizzo family harbors secrets: smoking, stripping, stealing. They're hinted at in cute, little montages, and then they explode in a huge, Greek climax that shouldn't work in a creative writing sense, but the humor and absurdity of it all is a juggernaut that compels the

May 23, 2010

Alice Shen

Super Reviewer

city island, test string

August 29, 2011

Anatoliy Dudaev

Super Reviewer

City Island Quotes

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1. Vince Rizzo: My wife thinks I got a poker game tonight.
– Submitted by Chris P (9 months ago)
1. Vince Rizzo: ahh here we go..
– Submitted by Chris P (9 months ago)