Mafia Wannabes – Wannabes (2000)

Directed by: Charles A. Adessi, William DeMeo | 110 minutes | drama, crime | Actors: William DeMeo, Conor Dubin, Robert Daleo, Ray Serra, Daniel Margotta, John Palumbo, Joe Viterelli, Joseph D’Onofrio, John Glenn Hoyt, Vinny Vella, Joseph Daleo Jr., Joseph Carl Dibitetto, Richard Maldone, Michael Caldera, Robert Constanzo

Angelo and his younger brother Paulie (Conor Dubin) have lived in Brooklyn all their lives. They make a living as waiters in a restaurant, but that’s just enough to keep their landlord happy every month. Their income is certainly not sufficient for the lifestyle that Angelo believes he is entitled to. Their childhood friends Pete (Daniel Margotta) and Dom (John Palumbo) are also not big earners and the four dream in vain of great riches and everything that comes with it.

At Angelo’s initiative, they start a career as bookmakers and loan sharks. Their course of action becomes increasingly violent and Angelo successfully tries to keep the mild-mannered Paulie out of harm’s way as much as possible. When they want to extort a shopkeeper, they have to deal with the mafia leader Santo Mineri. He makes it clear to them who is boss, after which they make a pact with him. Angelo and his friends earn so much money for themselves and Santo at some point that Santo wants to include Angelo in the family and maybe even appoint him as a successor. Santo’s son Vinnie hated Angelo before, but now it’s war. The film is not too bad, if your expectations are very low, and you are super optimistic, but it is possible. This aside, the atmosphere isn’t that bad and the storyline is nice too. The way the four start out rather clumsy as bookmakers is even funny. Initially, they suffer huge losses if they have to pay their customers large amounts over and over again, but when they get favorable results and they already count themselves rich, their customers don’t give up.

On paper it will have looked better than the final result. The acting ranges from bad to very bad. For example, Joseph D’Onofrio clenches his teeth to show his doggedness, sometimes even literally showing his teeth to express extreme anger. That is not cheerful. What is refreshing is that violence plays a much smaller role than in other mafia films in which it is glorified, whether on purpose or not. Here there is also violence, but it is a bit more subtle. It’s mainly about how hard it is to get out of poverty and poor prospects, and then a career in crime is apparently not so bad after all. Until someone has to pay the bill.