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Astoria

2000, Movie, NR, 103 mins

Astoria: Review

A first-generation Greek-American must come to terms with his immigrant father's thwarted dreams before he can pursue his own in this heartfelt but overly familiar film. Set in the Queens section of New York City in the heavily Greek neighborhood known as Astoria, the film revolves around disaffected, 28-year-old Alex (Rick Stear), whose college education and itch to see the wider world set him apart from his family and childhood friends. Alex's father, Demo (Ed Setrakian), owns a sandwich shop and wants Alex to take over the business when he retires. But Alex, who has a degree in history, daydreams about joining an archeological expedition to uncover the tomb of his idol, Alexander the Great. Alex's best friend, Theo (Joseph D'Onofrio), by contrast, just wants to hang around the neighborhood, have fun with girls and concoct get-rick-quick schemes. Alex falls for Theo's visiting Greek cousin, Elena (Paige Turco), a historian with a sideline in art restoration who's come to New York to work on a 500-year-old icon. And the fact that Elena, whose family is far more old-fashioned than Alex's, has slipped the bonds of traditional expectations inspires Alex to seriously consider trying to realize his own ambitions. But just as escape begins to seem like a possibility, Alex finds himself drawn into family problems. The stubborn Demo is into local toughs the "Hammer Bothers" (Steven J. Christofer, Yianni Sfinias) for $10,000, and Alex gets suckered into a high-stakes card game that will either wipe out Demo's debt or leave Alex in hock to the thugs for $20,000. This efficiently directed and acted film is clearly a labor of love for Boston-born, first-time feature writer-director Alex Efteriades, whose previous work includes the documentary The Greek-Americans of Boston; the credits include close to 200 "thank yous" to individuals, organizations and businesses. But he's crafted a very familiar tale, one that's been told by countless filmmakers about Italian-, Chinese-, Irish-, Latin-, Indian-, Russian- and other hyphenate American young men struggling to balance conflicting cultural messages. Alex's Greek heritage isn't especially vividly evoked, so it's hard to feel its pull; in fact, his problems seem more deeply rooted in the gap that divides first-generation college graduates from working-class parents who don't understand why, for all their education, their children seem to know nothing about making a living — another story that's been worked over pretty thoroughly. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh