Prince of Broadway (2008)

Director:

Sean Baker

Writers:

Sean Baker (writer)
Darren Dean (writer)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Awards:

11 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Prince Adu	...	Lucky
Karren Karagulian	...	Levon Krikorian
Aiden Noesi	...	Prince
Keyali Mayaga	...	Karina
Kat Sanchez	...	Linda
Victoria Tate	...	Nadia
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Chris Bergoch	...	Snowbound Victim
Brea Cola	...	Serena
Roger Harkavy	...	Defense Attorney
Adesuwa Addy Iyare	...	Herself
Kurt Leitner	...	Davenport
Cindy Lopez	...	Duana
Mark Newell	...	Undercover Cop
Edwin Norteye	...	Ralphie
Justen Oriolo	...	Size 13
Edward Pagan	...	Hector
Tony Roach	...	DNA Doctor
Allison Carter Thomas	...	Midwestern Tourist
Mala Wright	...	Customer

Runtime:

Argentina:100 min (Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Little Creature

Very very good, very engrossing, touching

I am so please to be able to comment on this film. I was afraid because due to the subject matter I thought I might be ready to see a two hour film on immigration, but I was happily surprised. It did not matter so much where the lead characters were from, it was a very human story that Prince of Broadway told. I feel it went beyond race/colour lines.

Lucky a NYC street hustler, gets an unwelcome surprise when a girl drops off a baby that may or may not be his. From there we follow him as goes through denial to acceptance, growing on us the audience who see him as more than just another hustler. The lead actor as Lucky is just wonderful, he seems so real, you never feel that he is acting. His interaction with the child is so real especially as he realizes being daddy isn't that easy. Another standout character is his boss, another immigrant, both of them interesting as they try to carve out their piece of the American dream the ''get yours" way of thinking but not in a distastful way even though what they do is technically illegal.

I found some scenes to seem less real. Lucky's fight with his boys over the possibility they stole from him is good, because you see he is near a breakdown, but it goes on long, a real street fight would have gotten dirtier faster. the mother of the child with her mother is a dissppointment. I was hoping this girl would prove herself to be more than a mouthy ignorant child herself, but her character was the cliché bad mom from the hood. Her mother's character was worse, I did not feel sympathy because even though the mother saw her grandchild with some man who maybe is the father, maybe not, and she allowed her grandchild to be carried away like some trash by him? And she lectrues her own daughter? It did not hold up. It seemed the female characters, with the exception of Lucky's girl, were not portrayed with as much attention as the male ones. The boss's wife was just a lot of nothing, you did not know why he cared about her, maybe that was the point, to see he hangs on to her because he has nothing else? But she was not appealing, she either screamed or mumbled, seemed very amateur, again maybe that was the point, but it took away from the more interesting storyline.

But no movie is perfect, and I liked this film so much and thought it had an important message, I hope that it is seen by more people especially younger ones.