Three stories that are at best loosely connected:

• First up, it's Eric (Fiore Leo), who has been sent to prison, and adult prison at that, when merely 16, as he was only a pawn in a mob game - and not he wants revenge on those who got him there (Geno Mirabella, Keith Bennett), even if he's killed in the process ...
• Angelo (John Martellucci) is asked by the big boss (Johnny Cammarata) to off Luca (Michael Capozzi) - and even if Luca was a childhood friend of his, he blindly agrees to it, to only too late notice the tables have been turned on him ...
• Tobias (David Graziano) is a former cop turned private eye looking for Eliza (Molly Kay), an essentially good girl who fell in with the wrong people and was turned into a prostitute (and who had a part in both previous segments), but he only finds her dead - but not one to let a case go, he digs up two of the men responsible for her demise, mobster Luca and corrupt cop Derby (William Bloomfield) - and plays them against one another, risking his own life in the process ...

A very nice gangster flick of the noir variety that presents the audience with broken characters rather than heroes vs villains, that affords itself to remain morally ambiguous to tell an engaging story, and that focuses on original storytelling (including its eccentric narrative structure) rather than just relying on spectacle. And add to that a very subtle direction that manages to combine gritty and highly stylized imagery, and a very solid cast who make the most of a mostly dialogue-driven movie, and you've got yourself a pretty good film indeed!

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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