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Ray Romano 's "Somewhere in Queens" is an unusual film set in the real world, about a father who is so obsessed with seeing his hoop star son go to college on a basketball scholarship that he screws up at work, sleepwalks through his own midlife crisis, and alienates his family. There's a type of viewer who reads that sort of description and thinks, "That sounds like a very unpleasant experience," and another who reads it and says, "Meh," and a third that says, "My kind of movie." Unfortunately, it's difficult to imagine a person who identifies with any of those groups wholeheartedly embracing "Somewhere in Queens" because of how it misunderstands its own strengths and underestimates the audience's willingness to go into unexpected places if a famous actor like Ray Romano is there to hold their hands.

Romano, who co-wrote the script with Mark Stegemann , stars as Leo Russo. Leo is a fiftysomething Queens husband and father who works at a family-owned home construction firm founded by his dad ( Tony LoBianco , one of many can't-miss East Coast character actors in the film's stacked cast). He and his wife Angela ( Laurie Metcalf ) are proud of their son "Sticks" ( Jacob Ward ) because he's a high school basketball star who seems to be on track to get a college athletic scholarship. Even Sticks’ dad seems to know he's not enough of a wizard on the court to go to the NBA. But going to college on a basketball scholarship is a fantasy for many people that's rarely achieved, and Leo seems to want it even more than Sticks.

Therein lies disaster, not just for the family but the film. Sticks introduces his parents to his girlfriend Dani ( Sadie Stanley ), who he's been dating secretly for weeks, and who will break up with him soon, to preempt the inevitable long-slow-Cold War breakup that she knows will follow when they go off to separate colleges. Sticks goes into a tailspin that jeopardizes his basketball prospects, and Leo responds by ... contriving to convince Dani to get back to together with him to help him get a scholarship.

Not only is this plot pivot gross and weird, but the movie also doesn't seem to fully recognize the grossness and weirdness. And as it pursues this storyline, turning the movie into something like a supersized, gritty "Everybody Loves Raymond" episode, with Romano channeling similar dim-bulb sad sack energy, it never fully awakens to the disaster it is inflicting on itself. There's an alternate universe where the film sunk its teeth into Leo's psychology and morphed into a great cringe comedy about an obsessed schmuck, like something Albert Brooks or Ben Stiller might have once starred in. But that's not the universe we live in. In this one, Leo's midlife crisis plays out in scenes of him disappointing his dad and brother (who are also his coworkers), repeatedly bargaining with Dani to help with his scheme (reducing the request to her just making Sticks think there's a chance at reunion) and seeming to go to the brink of cheating on his wife with a lonely, flirty woman at one of the family construction sites.

While we're watching Leo dog-paddle through a manure pit he filled up all by himself, there's a much more interesting and fresh story happening in the background about a modestly talented high school basketball player who discovers, while suffering and flailing through his first serious relationship, that he enjoys cathartically writing about what he's going through, and has a particular knack for poetry. To its credit, the film does see that there's a good story in a couple of decent kids who aren't fated to be together and the role that the crisis plays in convincing one of the kids to take a long look at himself, and ask whether what he really wants from life is to live his father's fantasy. But it’s too little, too late.

There's nothing outwardly remarkable about this movie, but it starts to seem incredibly weird when you think about the plot and how drastically the tone of the midsection clashes with what precedes and follows it. Romano is potentially a very good director of lifelike real-world comedy and drama. The film starts as a life-sized East Coast ethnic family story with a hard edge and a lot of heart, one that pitches its audience net as broadly as possible without being untrue to the characters. You get a pretty good handle on who they are very early in the story, and after that, you're on the lookout for situations that could bring out the worst in each of them, just as you might with members of your own family.

Romano doesn't seem to have put much thought into what shots mean, together or combined with other shots, which would've made this film a visual and a narrative experience. But he has a natural rapport with actors, plus good taste; he seems to know how to push on performers to push their limits but not too far. The characters are big, but the performances don't over-inflate them. Romano also seems to have a veteran stage and sitcom comedian's instinct to time a joke or an awkward moment so that it doesn't so much happen as pop , like a party snap firecracker. The family dinners, especially, have a core of instability that's exciting and unpleasant in a real way. You never know when somebody will needle somebody else a bit too hard, causing the other person to launch into a profane tirade that has the elder generation covering their ears and crossing themselves.

There's a good movie in Romano the feature filmmaker, but this isn't it. He misunderstands the specialness of his own film just as Leo misunderstands the specialness of Sticks.

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Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor at Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

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Somewhere in Queens (2023)

Rated R for language and some sexual material.

106 minutes

Ray Romano as Leo Russo

Laurie Metcalf as Angela Russo

Jacob Ward as Sticks Russo

Sadie Stanley as Dani Brooks

Jennifer Esposito

Deirdre Friel

Jon Manfrellotti

Danny Garcia

Erik Griffin

Sebastian Maniscalco

Tony Lo Bianco

Adam Kaplan

Katie Kreisler

Franco Maicas

Jennifer Simard

Mark Stegemann

Cinematographer

Maceo Bishop
Robert Nassau

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‘Somewhere in Queens’ Review: Rooting for the Underdog

Ray Romano plumbed the absurdities of family life on his sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond.” For this, his feature directing debut, he sticks to an Italian American milieu.

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A woman and a man sit in a theater, smiling.

By Glenn Kenny

Someday, when conventional wisdom gives way to common sense, “Everybody Loves Raymond” will be recognized as one of the best network situation comedies. Incisively written and superbly acted, it explored with surgical precision the bottomless hostility animating passive-aggressive family dynamics. Ray Romano, whose standup comedy fueled the series’ themes, very successfully bridged the skill set of a standup comedian with that of an ensemble comedic actor. And yet. No respect, or not enough respect.

In any event, the series is now a thing of the past, and Romano is taking a turn behind the camera for his feature directing debut, “Somewhere in Queens,” which he co-wrote with Mark Stegemann. Here, Romano sticks to the outer-borough Italian American milieu of his series. The results are mixed.

Romano plays Leo Russo, a likable, “Rocky”-obsessed screw-up who’s the underdog of his dad’s family construction firm. His tough cookie wife, Angela (Laurie Metcalf), is recovering from cancer. Their only son, nicknamed Sticks (Jacob Ward), is recessively shy but fiercely talented at basketball. His gift might yield him a college scholarship and has already attracted Dani (Sadie Stanley), a free-spirited girl.

But when Sticks crowds Dani, things cool between the two. Leo, in a fit of desperation, approaches Dani with an appalling proposition that will continue the momentum of the young couple’s relationship and keep Sticks on track for his college tryout.

This genuinely discomfiting narrative material hits some raw nerves, and the cast, which also includes the great Tony Lo Bianco, doesn’t back down from emotional authenticity. But if you’ve been following the movie’s music choices, which contain a number of songs that are at least wet-noodle adjacent, you won’t be surprised that Romano eventually contrives soft, and arguably goofy, exits for his troubled characters.

Somewhere in Queens Rated R for language and some sexual material. Running time: 1 hour 46 minutes. In theaters.

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Somewhere in Queens Reviews

It's a familiar but beautiful NYC type of story set in an Italian-American milieu.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Dec 26, 2023

Somewhere in Queens is helicopter parenting gone wild.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Dec 7, 2023

The film takes commendable tonal chances, but too easily succumbs to easy jokes and unconvincing plot twists.

Full Review | Dec 7, 2023

It doesn’t take long for the film to work its modest charms and for the actor/director to hit a sweet spot, balancing realism with the machinations required of interesting drama.

Romano is less interested in gags and more intent on mining the relationship between fathers and sons.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 18, 2023

“Queens” is a phenomenal first-filmmaking effort, and I can’t wait to see what Romano does next. In less than two hours, he completely changed my opinion of his talents and I humbly tip my hat to him. Way to go, Ray.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 12, 2023

Though the film hangs its central conflict on a sitcom convention, Romano surrounds it with interesting characters whose everyday issues carry that help ground the eventual unveiling of its big secret.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 30, 2023

Romano plays to his strengths, rooting his character in self-deprecation, counterbalanced by Metcalf’s rougher, angrier turn.

Full Review | Jun 7, 2023

Ray Romano shines as both the director and star of this Italian father/son relationship film.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | May 8, 2023

Romano’s film leans into exposed and sensitive moments that come with aging and your place in life when you reach a certain age that’s humorous and heartfelt.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | May 1, 2023

"Somewhere In Queens" has its poignant moments, as well as a well-spring of humor that is never overbearing. The acting throughout by the entire cast is superb. It’s truly a pleasure to watch Romano and Metcalf together.

Full Review | Apr 30, 2023

This unsuspecting film turns out to be a cliché-evading, deftly-written, sincerely heartwarming winner.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Apr 29, 2023

The writing pushes this movie higher in my regard, as I really enjoyed most of the interactions taking place and the journey being taken by characters (mostly family) who love each other but have issues truly liking each other.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Apr 28, 2023

Tyro helmer Romano has a good sense of family life, its pains and its absurdities – and its humor.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Apr 28, 2023

Ramano guides a sincere exploration of coming-of-age milieu that lands several moving tugs at the heartstrings.

Full Review | Apr 25, 2023

Some might look at this comedy as Romano's My Big Fat Italian Wedding, but that doesn't reduce its honesty, impact, or humor.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 25, 2023

The protagonist in Ray Romano’s Somewhere in Queens is a true original.

Metcalf excels at tough but vulnerable roles like she invented the work. Her performance typifies Somewhere in Queens, a film that arrives in the guise of a comedy but evolves into a deeper and more impactful family drama.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 24, 2023

Romano's directorial debut is a misfire, featuring Italian-American stereotyping, contrived plotting, and a major character who is a nonentity.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 24, 2023

Somewhere in Queens is unflinchingly real and honest in its portrayal of familial relationships and the weight of legacy. You'll cry as much as you laugh.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Apr 24, 2023

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‘Somewhere in Queens’ Review: Ray Romano Goes Home for a Sweet and Safe Directorial Debut

David ehrlich.

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Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival. Roadside Attractions releases the film in theaters on Friday, April 21.

There’s “staying in your comfort zone,” and then there’s Ray Romano making his directorial debut with a movie in which he plays a beleaguered outer-borough New York father who tries to look on the bright side of life and survive the slings and arrows that bond his large Italian-American family together even as they threaten to tear it apart. On paper, the leap from “Jackass” the TV show to “Jackass: The Movie” might have been a greater creative gamble than the one from “Everybody Loves Raymond” to “Somewhere in Queens,” which essentially finds its everyman superstar at the center of a 106-minute sitcom.

And yet, the film’s length isn’t the only reason why “Somewhere in Queens” avoids the stale whiff of syndication. Liberated from the bumper lanes that are built into the sitcom format — from the oppressiveness of canned laughter, throwaway B-plots, and the steady drumbeat of commercial breaks — Romano’s latest semi-autobiographical charmer is free to tell a more nuanced story within his favorite milieu, and it often does so with enough grace and sensitivity to suggest that Romano might be even better-suited to the big screen than he was to network broadcasts.

Of course, “the big screen” isn’t necessarily synonymous with “the movies” these days, and nothing about Romano’s middle-brow portrait of middle-class people suggests that “Somewhere in Queens” has the potential zeitgeist (or awards) appeal to earn a theatrical run in the current landscape. And that’s just fine, as the rewards of this modest and patient little character study — which has, not inaccurately, been labeled a “crowd-pleasing dramedy” — might be that much easier to appreciate in a streaming market where most of the other content is so insufferably desperate for your attention.

The only aspect of “Somewhere in Queens” that’s desperate for attention — anyone’s attention — is its main character. Not that you’d know it at a glance. The first time we meet Leo Russo (Romano), he’s white-knuckling his way through the latest in an endless parade of Russo family weddings. While everyone else is boisterously jawing at each other in between massive slices of cake, Leo is begging the videographer to cut him out of the tape. He’s clearly the shiest and most sensitive of the Russo men (a fact Romano underlines by casting Sebastian Maniscalco as Leo’s sad alpha of a younger brother, and the blustery Tony LoBianco as the father who’s always treated his oldest son like the Fredo Corleone of the family’s small construction business), although his teenage son “Sticks” will probably assume that distinction for himself the day he graduates from high school.

A reedy wallflower of a kid who the more traditional Russo men have already written off as a disappointment, Sticks (Jacob Ward) got his nickname on account of his height, which he puts to good use as the star of his Glendale high school’s thoroughly mediocre basketball team. Leo doesn’t really care if they win or lose, but he definitely seems to enjoy the spotlight that he gets to share with his son at the games. It’s the only time where either of them reliably feel seen.

If Sticks is still young enough to attract different kinds of attention — as is evidenced by his bright-eyed new girlfriend, Dani (Sadie Stanley), the Jennifer Lawrence of Forest Hills — Leo is holding onto this one for dear life. After all, his own wife ( Laurie Metcalf , bringing Shakespearian fire to a character that could’ve been a sitcom archetype) won’t even touch him since her breast cancer went into remission. So when a scout offers Sticks a long-shot tryout for a basketball scholarship at Drexel, Leo makes it his personal mission to make sure his son wins the open spot and keeps playing ball. And that mission gets mighty personal indeed, especially after Dani breaks Sticks’ heart just a few days before the big audition, and Leo finds himself begging this sweet teenage girl to put it back together.

Unsurprisingly — and in a way befitting the screenwriters’ sitcom roots — the plotting of Romano and Mark Stegemann’s script is a whole lot sweatier than Sticks ever seems to get on the court. If “Somewhere in Queens” rings true in spite of those contrivances, that’s because of how sensitively the film is attuned to what scares its characters (some of whom have always been scared of life, itself). Leo is petrified of losing the one person who makes him feel special, his abrasive wife is terrified that lowering her guard or acknowledging her body might invite the cancer to come back, his brother is paranoid that dropping his asshole shtick will leave him with nothing, and Sticks… well, Sticks is an introverted virgin who’s so scared of other people that he apparently won’t even go to a barber to fix the tragic hair situation he’s been sporting since he was six (I’m assuming), but also shows occasional flashes of fearlessness that should make any father proud.

The psychology here may not be particularly complex, but “Somewhere in Queens” handles it with a soft touch that keeps its story humming along at a natural volume. The dialogue is sharp without straining for laughs, the (many) dinner/party scenes manufacture a lived-in sense of familial love from the film’s terrific ensemble cast, and the use of Jennifer Esposito as Chekhov’s MILF turns out to be far more tactful than you expect it to be for most of the movie. After “The Big Sick,” it’s not really a surprise that Romano can tap into a rich vein of relatable self-loathing at a moment’s notice, but his smartly composed debut feature — never flashy, but always thoughtful — makes the best of its material because of the love he has for his characters. His faith in them reflects their faith in each other, both of which prove essential to a film that’s at its funniest whenever it feels real.

Charming as Romano’s directorial modesty and let’s not fuck this up approach can be, however, “Somewhere in Queens” also shares its characters’ fears where a more confident film might leverage them into courage. Several of the story choices down the home stretch reflect a risk-averse unwillingness to get messy, while Sticks’ — throughout the movie — is such a flat, clinical-grade introvert that you almost can’t blame Leo for projecting all of his hopes to the kid. There’s a fine line between shy and simple, and “Somewhere in Queens” doesn’t always seem to know where it is.

The mismatch between Dani’s radiance and Sticks’ naiveté is deliberate and supported by the plot — and yes, this is a movie about a man learning to see his son as more than a very tall extension of himself — but Romano is a stronger storyteller than he gives himself credit for, to the point that I wished he would’ve challenged himself to make Sticks a more dynamic person. It’s a fundamental aspect of this film, and the one lane where “Somewhere in Queens” still bowls with the bumper lanes up. If Romano decides to direct another film — and he should — here’s hoping that he shoots it like he isn’t afraid of missing the mark, because in all likelihood he probably won’t.

“Somewhere in Queens” premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival.

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Ray romano and laurie metcalf in ‘somewhere in queens’: film review | tribeca 2022.

The actor's first feature as a director is an ensemble comic drama about a family man who becomes too invested in his basketball-playing son’s hoop dreams.

By Sheri Linden

Sheri Linden

Senior Copy Editor/Film Critic

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Versailles Palace — not the historic residence near Paris — is one of those places. You know, a bedazzled hall for rent for the celebration of weddings, confirmations and whatever rite of passage requires dinner and a DJ. For the Italian American New Yorkers in Somewhere in Queens , it’s not just a venue but a way of life, both a necessary communal stomping ground and an affectionate running joke. As its title suggests, the movie embraces generic types, but smart writing, unforced direction and a superb cast give the sentimental-but-not-gushy comic drama the messy specifics and narrative friction to lift it well beyond been-there-done-that.

Somewhere in Queens

Venue: Tribeca Film Festival (Spotlight Narrative)

Cast: Ray Romano, Laurie Metcalf, Tony Lo Bianco, Sebastian Maniscalco, Jennifer Esposito, Jacob Ward, Sadie Stanley, Dierdre Friel, Jon Manfrellotti

Director: Ray Romano

Screenwriters: Ray Romano, Mark Stegemann

On the job at Russo Construction, Leo’s smug jerk of a brother, Frank (Sebastian Maniscalco), throws around his weight as foreman, while sympathetic pal and co-worker Petey (Jon Manfrellotti) knows how to cut the tension. Leo can’t communicate with his dad, and he mistakenly believes that the lines of communication are wide open with his 18-year-old son, Matthew, aka Sticks, the star of his school’s basketball team. He kvells to see Sticks, who has inherited Leo’s diffidence, in heroic mode on the court. “He’s different out there,” Leo assures his father, who listens but doesn’t get it.

When an opportunity arises for a basketball scholarship to college in Philadelphia, Leo is more excited than his son, and definitely more so than his wife, Angela, a tough cookie who tends to be angry and suspicious as well as practical and wise, and who’s still struggling with unexplored fears just a few years since undergoing surgery and chemotherapy for breast cancer. Both Leo and Angela are dumbfounded when they discover that Sticks has a girlfriend, but while Leo is slightly dazzled by the self-confident Danielle (Sadie Stanley), the skeptical Angela takes an instant disliking to her.

The chemistry between Ward and Stanley is sweet and strong, generating convincing sparks between Sticks’ smitten awkwardness and Danielle’s experience. Bold and chatty, she makes an impression at the boisterous table of the Russos’ regular Sunday afternoon dinner, where Mama Russo (June Gable) urges “Mangia tutti!” and the loving insults fly fast and furious, especially between Frank and sister Rosa (Dierdre Friel, Physical ), who’s single and still living with the folks.

At the same time as his son is in the pangs of first love, Leo is feeling seen in a way that he hasn’t in years, thanks to the flirtatious attention of a widowed customer, Pamela (Jennifer Esposito, pitch-perfect). As the story proceeds, it zeroes in on the way parents can project their own hopes and dreams onto their kids, culminating in a ruse spearheaded in spectacularly bumbling fashion by Leo and destined to blow up in his face.

From first moment to last, the screenplay by Romano and Stegemann, who worked together on the TNT series Men of a Certain Age , captures the way people talk, from the tossed-in “irregardless” to the wise-ass humor, from the way Danielle is quick to point out that she’s not from “the ritzy part” of Forest Hills Gardens to Leo’s tiresome habit of quoting from Rocky.

In this story of middle-age reckoning and teenage awakening, there are plenty of moments of selfishness dressed up as solicitude. Nearly everybody screws up, nearly everybody means well, and nobody is simply one thing or the other. Just as the design work by Annie Simeone Morales and Megan Stark Evans never announces itself, Maceo Bishop’s camerawork and Robert Nassau’s editing are aptly naturalistic and unobtrusive. Whether the focus is a conversation in a car, a meltdown in a doctor’s office, the suspense on a basketball court or the interpersonal drama in the stands, everything about the film lets the characters shine — and there isn’t one that doesn’t.

Led by Romano and Metcalf, with their well-established knack for playing “ordinary” people, the ensemble finds the characters’ beating, nervous hearts. No one quite gets off the hook, and everyone learns a thing or two. Some of the lessons are tough, but they’re softened by Romano’s fondness for the characters. The most predictable and obvious thing about the movie is the way it favorably contrasts well-meaning foot-in-mouth Leo and his big, noisy family with Danielle’s cold, absent, well-to-do parents.

As a Forest Hills native (not the Gardens, and definitely not the ritzy part), I wonder about the film’s title. People from Brooklyn might say they’re from Brooklyn, but I’ve always known people from Queens to say they’re from Jamaica or Middle Village or Long Island City or Astoria. Romano mostly avoids location details, though anyone familiar with the borough will recognize the general setting for the Russos’ saga. Maybe that vague “Somewhere” is an embrace, a universal Versailles Palace of the mind: Gather here to celebrate the milestones, play your prescribed role and know where you belong — until something gives and someplace else looms into view.

Full credits

Venue: Tribeca Film Festival (Spotlight Narrative) Production companies: Bona Fide, Papa Al Cast: Ray Romano, Laurie Metcalf, Tony Lo Bianco, Sebastian Maniscalco, Jennifer Esposito, Jacob Ward, Sadie Stanley, Dierdre Friel, Jon Manfrellotti, Danny Garcia, Erik Griffin, Seth Barrish, Geoffrey Owens, June Gable, Katie Kreisler, Jennifer Simard, Caryn Richman, Kevin Qian, Marshall Davis Jones Director: Ray Romano Screenwriters: Ray Romano, Mark Stegemann Producers: Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa, Ray Romano, Mark Stegemann Executive producers: Chris Stinson, Amy Greene Director of photography: Maceo Bishop Production designer: Annie Simeone Morales Costume designer: Megan Stark Evans Editor: Robert Nassau Music: Mark Orton Casting: Douglas Aibel, Stephanie Holbrook Sales: ICM Partners

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‘Somewhere in Queens’: Love and heartbreak, Italian American style

Ray Romano and Laurie Metcalf star in Romano’s directorial debut: A father-and-son dramedy of aspiration and finding your own path

The impressive directorial debut of Ray Romano, “Somewhere in Queens” is set in the milieu of a working-class Italian American family in the titular New York borough, a place where characters use malapropisms like “irregardless,” gather to celebrate weddings and other milestones at the glitzy Versailles Palace event space, and sit down for weekly, intergenerational Sunday dinners of meatballs and pasta at noon.

The story’s protagonist — a lovable sad sack named Leo Russo, adeptly played by the filmmaker — is fond of quoting pearls of wisdom from the Rocky franchise as though they were lines from the Talmud. With his brother Frank (Sebastian Maniscalco), his uncle Pete (Jon Manfrellotti) and other relatives, Leo toils for a construction business run by his father (Tony Lo Bianco).

But his pride and joy is his son Matthew (Jacob Ward), known as Sticks for his long legs, a talented high school basketball player for whom Leo begins to harbor vicarious dreams of an athletic scholarship — rather than a job in the family business, as is expected — after a visit by a talent scout (P.J. Byrne) triggers the hope that there could be a full ride for Matthew at a small school like Drexel.

Expectation (and its subversion) is everything in this sweet and observant dramedy, which sets up this overly familiar premise like a house of cards, only to knock it down with as much care and precision as it did in building it. The love language of the Russo family is shouting — one of several cliches deployed here — but Romano and his co-writer, Mark Stegemann, deftly deflate and dodge most other stereotypes, creating a funny and touching father-and-son tale about aspiration and finding your own path.

The monkey wrench in these well-oiled plot mechanics is Dani (Sadie Stanley), a classmate of Matthew’s who has only recently started to date the “quiet and weird” teenager, to use her words. Where Matthew is shy and awkward (like his dad), Dani is a voluble, even fickle extrovert — a firecracker, to use Uncle Pete’s term. But when the shakiness of the teens’ relationship stars to unravel Leo’s plans for Matthew’s ticket out of Queens, the father’s meddling, however well-intentioned, leads to a family crisis.

Other meaty subplots are thrown into this ragu, including the post-cancer worries of Leo’s wife (Laurie Metcalf) and a flirtation Leo has with a sexy widow (Jennifer Esposito), related to his own feelings of inadequacy, both on the job and at home.

Romano charms in the role of Leo, but the other main cast members deserve praise as well: Ward brings a shy, poetic intensity to Matthew, while Stanley adds nuance to a character — neither hero nor villain, but a bit of both — who could easily have become a two-dimensional device in service of narrative. Metcalf, especially, is at the top of her game, delivering both comedy gold and silver tears.

The screenplay is the true star here, smartly avoiding any arc of unearned redemption. Several characters, in fact, don’t get what they want — or, rather, what they’d get in a more formulaic, less genuine story. Neither, for that matter, does the audience get what it wants. If you’re expecting Matthew to sink the game-winning shot, to take the scholarship, to keep the girl — for everyone to end up happy or immediately forgiven for their transgressions — you might be disappointed.

Ultimately, “Somewhere in Queens” isn’t interested in what viewers want. But it ends up delivering it anyway, because the filmmakers know what we (and the story) need: something honest, something recognizable, something real.

R. At area theaters. Contains strong language and some sexual material. 106 minutes.

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User reviews

Somewhere in Queens

Leo and Angela Russo live a simple life in Queens, surrounded by their overbearing Italian-American family. When their son 'Sticks' finds success on his high-school basketball team, Leo tear... Read all Leo and Angela Russo live a simple life in Queens, surrounded by their overbearing Italian-American family. When their son 'Sticks' finds success on his high-school basketball team, Leo tears the family apart trying to make it happen. Leo and Angela Russo live a simple life in Queens, surrounded by their overbearing Italian-American family. When their son 'Sticks' finds success on his high-school basketball team, Leo tears the family apart trying to make it happen.

Mark Stegemann
Laurie Metcalf
45 User reviews
36 Critic reviews
61 Metascore
2 nominations

Angela Russo

Matthew 'Sticks' Russo

Dani Brooks

Dominick 'Pops' Russo

Frank Russo

Pamela Carmelo

DJ Joey Bones

Dr. Scarpulla
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Trivia This is Ray Romano's first directing job.
Goofs At 1:18:57, when Leo is walking away from Petey, Leo has no abrasion on his face. At 1:19:07 in the next scene, he has an abrasion on right side of his face.

[Last lines]

Amy : I love you, Matthew!

Angela Russo : Who's this whore?

Connections References Rocky (1976)
Soundtracks Buona Sera Performed by Louis Prima Written by Carl Sigman and Peter De Rose Courtesy of Capitol Records Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

Technical specs

Runtime 1 hour 46 minutes

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Somewhere in Queens review: Ray Romano's directorial debut is slight, but moving

Ray Romano writes, directs, and stars in this familiar, heartwarming story of a father offering misguided help to his son.

Maureen Lee Lenker is a senior writer at Entertainment Weekly with over seven years of experience in the entertainment industry. An award-winning journalist, she's written for Turner Classic Movies, Ms. Magazine , The Hollywood Reporter , and more. She's worked at EW for six years covering film, TV, theater, music, and books. The author of EW's quarterly romance review column, "Hot Stuff," Maureen holds Master's degrees from both the University of Southern California and the University of Oxford. Her debut novel, It Happened One Fight , is now available. Follow her for all things related to classic Hollywood, musicals, the romance genre, and Bruce Springsteen.

Ray Romano goes back to his roots in more ways than one with Somewhere in Queens .

The film, which marks his directorial debut (out now in theaters), stars Romano as Leo Russo, an Italian American who lives in Queens and works for his father's construction company. With his wife, Angela ( Laurie Metcalf) , recovering from breast cancer, his high point of the week is watching his son "Sticks" (Jacob Ward) play varsity basketball. When Sticks has a shot at a college scholarship, Leo goes to dubious ends to help ensure his future.

The warm, boisterous family at the heart of Somewhere in Queens could be next-door neighbors to the Barones of Everybody Loves Raymond , the long-running sitcom that earned Romano his fame. Metcalfe is sterner and more deeply Italian than Patricia Heaton's Deb, but the dynamic of harried housewife and hapless husband remains. So too does the presence of an antagonistic brother and a loud, loving family constantly in each other's business. It is this family that gives the film its heart.

We've seen plenty of Italian broods in media, but generally they are more The Sopranos , less Modern Family . Romano and co-writer Mark Stegemann go to great lengths to paint a family that is charming and hilarious in their relatability. I'm Croatian, not Italian, but the sacred nature of a (very early) Sunday dinner; the ubiquity of family celebrations (often tied to religious sacraments); and the loud, nosy, loving manner the Russos possess is immediately familiar to my Mediterranean heritage.

We get hints from the beginning that Leo is dissatisfied with his life — and he funnels those regrets into Sticks. Leo's midlife crisis comes via his aspirations for his son. It's as if Leo were a modern-day George Bailey, the central figure of It's a Wonderful Life ; Leo learns the lesson of the value of his life not from an angel, but through his misguided efforts to help his son. Leo's choices and what he asks of Sticks' ex-girlfriend Dani (a radiantly morally conflicted Sadie Stanley) are downright icky if you think about them too hard, but the film has the sense to call attention to that rather than sweep it under the rug.

Leo is obsessed with Rocky , with rooting for the underdog in the face of life's obstacles. But Somewhere in Queens doesn't have the scale of a Rocky film. That's in the case of tone and heart, not production budget. It's engaging and tackles everything from parental expectations to the trauma of cancer survivors, but it's also relatively slight. Even when Leo gets drunk and his secrets are exposed, there's no great moment of reckoning with his father, no sense that he will never forget to appreciate what he has.

Romano is a skilled, if not flashy director, bringing a simplicity to his framing. The Russos inhabit a world that bristles with its normalcy, and Romano captures that in every image, whether it be the greenery of a college campus or the lived-in trappings of a kitchen. There's nothing particularly visually arresting, but he does have an eye for human relationships and naturalistic performances.

The title, linking Leo and Sticks to their hometown, might be location-based, but it's the acting, not the vistas that really shines here, from Angela's tearful admission that she wants her son to stay home because she's worried about losing time with him to Leo's gradual realization that no part of him wants to be unfaithful to his wife. Stanley is the breakout as the entirely humane Dani, torn between her desire to help Sticks flourish and her disinterest in him as a long-term romantic partner. She brings her internal conflict to vivid life with a mere furrow of the brow or a sidelong glance.

Because the mid-budget movie feels more on the verge of extinction than ever, I'm loath to call Somewhere in Queens forgettable. But it is. It's quiet and charming and has some beautiful, if also familiar things to say about fathers and sons, and the question of legacy. But it's not breaking any new or revelatory ground. Romano takes the beats of Everybody Loves Raymond and replaces the comedy with a bittersweet melancholy. For better or worse, the dysfunction — and the love — remain. B

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‘Somewhere in Queens’ Review: What’s Not to Love About Ray Romano’s Directorial Debut?

The comedian's directorial debut, which co-stars Laurie Metcalf, demonstrates why he was always more than just a sitcom dad.

By Michael Nordine

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It may come as a surprise to anyone who only knows him from the sitcom that made him a household name, but Ray Romano can really act. This first became apparent to many via his performance in “Parenthood,” Jason Katims’ small-screen adaptation of the Ron Howard movie that surpassed its source material in every way, and was further solidified when he held his own against Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in “The Irishman.” As it turns out, Romano can also direct. He does both in debut feature “ Somewhere in Queens ,” in which Romano plays a working-class family man whose son may or may not be going to college on a basketball scholarship.

Despite the fact that Sticks (Jacob Ward) stands 6’2″ and is his team’s star player, the idea of a scholarship never occurs to anyone until a recruiter happens to see him in action. It’s been a foregone conclusion for years that Sticks will join the family construction business that his father, uncle and grandfather are all part of. Leo (Romano) is lower in the pecking order than both of them, so he’s initially inclined to agree when they say that college is pointless — Sticks is just going to end up working for them anyway, so why delay the inevitable by four years? The only one who truly disagrees is the boy’s free-spirited girlfriend (Sadie Stanley), whom his mother didn’t know existed until recently.

As Sticks’ mom, Laurie Metcalf plays a cancer survivor named Angela who wants as much time with her son as she can possibly get. She knows better than anyone that it isn’t assured. She’s great in the role (when is she not?), showing how the exhaustion of running a household is far from mutually exclusive with unconditional love for everyone in it. She’s wary of Sticks’ new flame — but to be fair, she’d likely be wary of any girl who’d dare take an interest in her only child. She’s just that kind of mother, and while it might be frustrating for Sticks, it’s frequently amusing for us.

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“Somewhere in Queens” is a low-stakes slice of life for much of its runtime, with most of the actual conflict stemming from a questionable decision Leo makes to ensure his son’s success. That doesn’t necessarily make it feel slight, however, as the film is such an affectionate love letter to the Italian American families who populate the eponymous borough that you don’t mind simply sharing the dinner table with them. The exaggerated mannerisms and verbal sparring aren’t exactly new territory for Romano, but he proves as comfortable behind the camera as he is in front of it. (In addition to directing and starring, he also produced and co-wrote the script with his former “Men of a Certain Age” writer Mark Stegemann.)

As in his other roles, much of Romano’s gravitas comes from his voice. Somewhere between Muppet and sad-sack, it masks Leo’s pain without fully hiding it. (It also makes lines like “I heard it’s bad for the earth when they fart, the cows” and “The heart goes wherever it wants; it’s like a coyote” considerably funnier than they would be if delivered by someone else.)

Angela’s affectionate assessment of her husband as being “so fucking stupid sometimes” isn’t inaccurate, but it’s also not the whole story — she can’t help saying it with love in her voice. Leo may not have gone as far in life as he would have wanted to, and his efforts to help his son achieve more than he has are shaky at best. But he’s trying his damndest, so we can’t help but gravitate toward him the same way his family does.

Reviewed online, June 9, 2022. In Tribeca Film (Spotlight Narrative). Running time: 106 MIN.

Production: A Bona Fide, Papa Al production. Producers: Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa, Ray Romano, Mark Stegemann. Executive producers: Amy Green, Chris Stinson. Co-producer: Ally Romano.
Crew: Director: Ray Romano. Screenplay: Ray Romano & Mark Stegemann. Camera: Maceo Bishop. Editor: Rob Nassau.
With: Ray Romano, Laurie Metcalf, Tony Lo Bianco, Sebastian Maniscalco, Jennifer Esposito, Jacob Ward, Sadie Stanley, Dierdre Friel, Jon Manfrellotti.

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‘Somewhere in Queens’ Review: Ray Romano Is the MVP in His Directorial Debut

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Family can be both a source of comfort and immense tension. They love you and want what’s best for you, but they can also get way up in your business. They have certain perceptions and expectations of you, and, more often than not, they have blunt opinions that they will share whether you asked to hear them or not. In short, family celebrations and gatherings are a tightrope walk, with the potential to be a delight or a disaster. Actor and comedian Ray Romano knows this experience all too well in Somewhere in Queens , a film about one hardworking family man’s unending determination to give his son the life he deserves, and the one that he himself never had.

The Everybody Loves Raymond star has his hands full with this project that had its world premiere at the Tribeca International Film Festival. In addition to it being his directorial debut, Romano also co-wrote the film on and off for years with frequent collaborator Mark Stegemann. Additionally, he also plays the lead role of Leo who is hands down the black sheep of the tight-knit Italian Russo family. Romano’s overlooked and underappreciated character often shoulders the burden of familial expectations while doing his best to carve a unique enough path for his son, Sticks ( Jacob Ward ), an excruciatingly shy high school senior and star on the basketball team. Sticks might be the MVP, but he has no aspirations to—or expectations of—pursuing the sport in college. Or, heck, even going to college. It’s assumed at this point, given the extended Russo family tradition, that all the men are going to work for the family construction company from the moment they exit high school, and well, “retirement” isn’t really part of their vocabulary.

All of these factors working against Leo just make him feel more claustrophobic and stifled when he hears from a recruiter that his son is good enough to get a college scholarship. This escalates the enthusiasm that Leo already had about his son (Sticks’ basketball games were the highlight of Leo’s week), but it also makes things incredibly complicated. The Russos, like most Italian families, don’t like to break the norm or tradition. And that means any tradition, which is something Romano’s Leo both loves and loathes about his family. His stoic younger brother Frank (played perfectly by the typically-silly comedian Sebastian Maniscalco ) and his sons take the business very seriously, as well as Frank and Leo’s father, Tony Lo Bianco ’s Dominic (or as they call him, Pop), making any topic that isn’t about the business extremely hard to bring up.

RELATED: See The Trailer for Ray Romano's Directorial Debut 'Somewhere in Queens'

The Russos are incredibly close, though ironically (and much to Leo’s frustration), no one has an interest in supporting Sticks’ basketball, including Angela, Leo’s wife. Angela is played by the undeniable force that is Laurie Metcalf , who steals every scene she is in. Metcalf has a lot on her plate with this role; she has to first and foremost speak in a believable, hardcore New Jersey Italian accent, which she does with flying colors. Her character arguably has the most stress of them all, concealing something from her loved ones that is revealed later in the film.

There is a lot to mine from Metcalf’s character that gets a bit sidelined due to the main story, making every scene with her feel like it’s over far too quickly. Maybe it’s the way she treats getting her pills ready for the week like it’s an Olympic sport or the way she preps chicken cutlets as if she is handling nuclear codes. And nothing quite beats her immediate silent (and then not-so-silent) judging of Dani ( Sadie Stanley ), Stick’s girlfriend whom Leo and Angela didn’t even know existed.

The introduction of Dani is about when the story actually starts. She meets the family for the big Sunday dinner, and, due to a number of factors that become clear, breaks up with Sticks. This, of course, leaves Sticks heartbroken, as well as Leo, but for more selfish reasons that are, again, revealed. Romano balances the socially awkward and exhausted persona he honed for years on his sitcom with that of a man who is juggling his own crippling insecurities, doubts, and regrets. This genuine vulnerability is a side of the comedian that we haven’t really seen, and, considering how many other responsibilities he is managing on this project, makes his performance all the more memorable. As viewers will quickly realize while watching this film, this isn’t about Sticks, it’s about Leo. It’s so clearly Romano’s movie, making some of the scenes that feature Sticks without either parent feel a bit undercooked.

Somewhere in Queens spends a lot of time establishing the Russo family rapport, their fairly insular world, and the setting, the latter of which is so important that it’s the title of the movie. Heritage and pride toward the family are abundant, as various handmade decorations on the walls donning the Russo family name indicate. Leo's parents have never replaced or renovated a single decoration since they moved in decades prior, as evident by the abundance of wood paneling, the overstuffed curio cabinet filled with breakable treasures, and the now-ancient-looking television. Not only are all of these details key to conveying who the Russos are, but they are especially beneficial for viewers who are not necessarily versed in everyday Italian-American family culture, and perhaps rely on The Sopranos or The Godfather for an authentic Italian experience. While those titles are accurate, of course, with regard to the almighty Sunday dinner that takes practically the entire day to prepare, it’s overshadowed by “the Mob” cliché that saturates media involving Italians .

It’s very admirable—and refreshing—that Somewhere in Queens doesn't fall into the trap of caricaturing Italian clichés for comedic effect. There could’ve easily been a number of expected, throwaway gags for a cheap laugh, but Romano smartly steered away from that. It’s a film that doesn’t feel the pressure of reminding the audience that it’s a comedy, which makes the story and the dysfunctional—but very loving—family that much more endearing and authentic to real life.

Somewhere in Queens is in theaters April 21.

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Laurie Metcalf

Review: Ray Romano tackles familiar terrain in disappointing ‘Somewhere in Queens’

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Ray Romano’s deeply earnest, semiautobiographical dramedy, “Somewhere in Queens,” starts off with such evocative charm that it’s both a surprise and a shame when the story goes sideways at the midpoint — and never quite recovers.

Although Romano may still be most widely known as a creative force behind the hit sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond” and for his beloved turn as the series’ hangdog hero, Ray Barone, he’s proven a solid serious actor in such shows as “Men of a Certain Age,” “Parenthood” and the short-lived, underrated “Vinyl.”

Romano’s part here, as well-intentioned, Queens-dwelling, “Rocky”-quoting schlemiel Leo Russo, is a sort of enjoyably familiar hybrid of his previous roles. And, for much of the time, he brings an affecting and understated warmth to his performance — as well as to his direction. But his script, written with “Men of a Certain Age” collaborator Mark Stegemann, attempts to cover a bit too much emotional and familial terrain and, most problematically, fumbles a pivotal plot point.

Leo is currently up against three significant issues. First, his hard-nosed wife, Angela (a committed Laurie Metcalf ), is a cancer survivor whose anger and fear Leo can’t seem to pierce. Then there’s the long-suffering Leo’s underappreciated work in construction, toiling away for his old-school, company-founder father, Dominic (the welcome Tony Lo Bianco), and obnoxious, foreman brother, Frank (Sebastian Maniscalco in a one-note role).

Third and most essential, though, is Leo’s protective relationship with his anxious, painfully introverted 18-year-old son, Matthew, a.k.a. Sticks (Jacob Ward), a high school basketball star nicknamed for his long legs. When Leo, Sticks’ chief supporter and cheerleader, discovers that a basketball scholarship to Philadelphia’s Drexel University is an off-the-radar prospect, he goes into overdrive to help seal the deal, despite Angela’s suspicion of the golden opportunity.

Unfortunately, this gives way to an intrusive move Leo concocts on his son’s behalf that involves Sticks’ bright and forthright new girlfriend, Dani (a luminous Sadie Stanley). What at first feels awkward and desperate becomes something far more uncomfortable as it spins out into wrecking-ball territory and subverts our cozy feelings toward Leo.

Sorry, but there had to have been a less icky and contrived way to create the requisite havoc here.

In addition, the surface-y nature of many of the film’s character dynamics creates its share of questions and voids: Sticks’ emotional issues, though discussed, go somewhat underexamined; Dominic’s general dismissal of Leo and greater belief in the inexplicably jerky Frank could have used a family history lesson; and the case of Leo’s younger, never-married sister-of-a-certain-age, Rosa (Dierdre Friel), is light on dimension. And, for as much as the affable Leo extols his relationship with the cranky Angela, it’s not always clear to see what exactly has kept them bonded all these years (starting in high school, no less).

When late-breaking reasons are floated, if not outright revealed, for some of the characters’ more dubious behaviors, it can feel like too little, too late — without the kind of catharsis or redemption that might send us out more wholly satisfied.

On the plus side, Romano offers an authentic view of Italian American New York life, something the actor-filmmaker, a Queens native, is intimately acquainted with. This includes his boisterous portrayal of Sunday family dinners, replete with heaps of pasta and meatballs, as well as the many community celebrations that regularly rope in friends and relatives (a glitzy local banquet hall named Versailles Palace is ground zero here for these events). It’s hard for scenes like these to entirely avoid seeming cliched — after all, we’ve seen them countless times — but they’re vitally staged and performed.

There’s also a nice use of music, including such fitting standards as “Buona Sera” and “Volare,” along with a sweet cover of Jim Croce’s “I Got a Name” and such classic party tunes as “The Twist,” “Limbo Rock” and “Celebration.” The tender score by Mark Orton (“The Good Girl,” “Nebraska”) is another worthy element.

The capable cast is rounded out by Jennifer Esposito as a lonely widow who turns Leo’s head (in a wedged-in, less-than-convincing story strand), Jon Manfrellotti and Danny Garcia as Leo’s mouthy pals and co-workers, and June Gable, underused as Leo’s “Mangia!”-urging mamma.

Somewhere in “Queens” lies a stronger, more unique and inspiring story about family, culture and the place we call home. It’s too bad Romano didn’t fully find it. But as is, this goodhearted if at times misguided version may suffice for its often amusing and touching moments and as a reminder of Romano’s everyman skill in front of a camera.

'Somewhere in Queens'

Rated: R, for language and some sexual material Running time: 1 hour, 47 minutes Playing: In general release

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Ray Romano is in the director's chair for the first time for Somewhere in Queens . The movie doesn’t have any flashy filmmaking, but the story is honed in on a single and very strong theme. The film also marks Romano's first time as a feature screenwriter, and while the script, which he co-wrote with Mark Stegemann, is no masterpiece, it feels true to life in a way that will get under one's skin and stay there. With Laurie Metcalf coming off the bench to co-star, the entire supporting cast comes to feel like Romano's actual family in a way his iconic sitcom did not.

Leo (Romano) and Angela (Metcalf) reside in Queens with their anxious yet talented son Sticks (Jacob Ward). They are surrounded by a huge Italian American community and Leo works for his family's construction business. Most of the family pays little to no attention to Sticks, and only Leo knows his son is a star basketball player in the making but is just shy. When Leo and Angela realize Sticks has a girlfriend, it hits them that maybe he is doing just fine. However, the rest of the family wants him to join the construction company. When things start to go sideways for Sticks, Leo intervenes where he shouldn’t, exposing himself as more desperate than he cares to admit.

Somewhere in Queens falls in a long line of stand-up comedians transitioning from stage to television before finally directing a feature. For some comedians, that apex might look like Bill Burr in The Mandalorian ; for others, it’s Chris Rock writing, starring, and directing in Top Five. For Ray Romano, directing really is the final frontier, as he gained mainstream success from Everybody Loves Raymond and has been in two Martin Scorsese projects. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Romano is not writing his biography, but rather patching together characters from the neighborhood he grew up in to fill in the soul of a script he wrote.

The supporting cast of Somewhere In Queens is one of the film's greatest strengths. This is not exactly a feel-good movie — at least not until the very end. For the most part, these characters are causing stress and tension for everyone they encounter. But it all clicks and the main cast elevates that pressure. Sebastian Maniscalco ( The Super Mario Bros. Movie ) gives a subtle but effective dramatic performance as one of Ray’s brothers and Everybody Loves Raymond alum Jon Manfrellotti gives a similarly low-key but memorable turn.

Somewhere in Queens starts off as Ward’s movie but slowly becomes about Romano's character. This move is a little bumpy and there's a case for the film being slightly longer. Sticks' basketball arc is compelling and there is almost a sports movie hiding in the first act, but the time spent with him is split between school, sports, and love, with the latter being the script's main focus. In the second act, Sticks' girlfriend, played by The Goldbergs' Sadie Stanley, is the baton, passing the story from Ward to Ramano. The story device that gets the plot to this point is perhaps the most interesting part of the screenplay, but the inconsistent amount of screentime for Ward thereafter makes the transition a little rocky.

Somewhere in Queens is ultimately a well-made family drama with laughs sparsely placed throughout. The cast is crushing it and the script is as gritty as it is sweet. Romano’s direction works well, and every department is on the same page. Family dramas are not in short supply, but Romano’s vision is specific and has a tight enough focus to be enjoyable.

Somewhere in Queens is now playing in theaters. The film is 106 minutes long and rated R for language and some sexual material.

Our Rating:

3 star movies
Somewhere In Queens (2023)

Everybody ribs Ray Romano in his delightful directorial debut ‘Somewhere in Queens’

Tv veteran stars in sharply funny movie as a likable schlub who dotes on his basketball player son..

Veteran sitcom actors Ray Romano and Laurie Metcalf are magnificent together as Leo and Angela, a long-married couple in “Somewhere in Queens.”

Roadside Attractions

We know exactly where we’re going with Ray Romano’s delightful and sharply funny “Somewhere in Queens” from the opening segment, which is set in a utilitarian banquet hall with the grand name of Versailles Palace, the go-to place in the neighborhood for christening celebrations, confirmations, bar mitzvahs, retirement parties, birthdays, you name it. This time around, it’s a wedding reception, and as Louis Prima’s “Buona Sera” plays on the soundtrack, the videographer records the guests sending their best wishes.

“I love youse both,” says one gal, and yes, she says “youse.”

Another woman says, “Louise, I know you think I hate you, I don’t, I love you, and I was right about that dress.”

A bridesmaid grabs the mic and says, “Sebastian, you better be good to her, because she’s my ride or die, I swear, treat her right, cuz if not I’m going to beat the f--- out of you.”

Boom. Too great.

Director, star and co-writer Romano stays squarely in his comfort zone with “Somewhere in Queens,” in which he plays the likable schlub Leo Russo, who has been married to his high school sweetheart, the brassy but fiercely loyal Angela (Laurie Metcalf) for more than 20 years, dotes on his painfully shy basketball star son Sticks (Jacob Ward) and works for the family construction company, which is owned by his old-school, tough-guy father (Tony Lo Bianco).

That Leo’s alpha-male younger brother Frank (Sebastian Maniscalco) is the foreman while Leo is just on the crew, along with his childhood best friend Petey (Jon Manfrellotti), tells you what the family thinks of Leo. He’s OK, he’s all right, even if he drives everybody nuts with his constant quoting of “Rocky” and his endless boasting about Sticks’ prowess on the court. He’s just not the guy you put in charge of things. He’s the guy you hope doesn’t screw things up.

And yes, Ray Romano can play this type of character in his sleep, and Laurie Metcalf certainly knows her way around a sitcom-type kitchen, and they’re magnificent together. (Sidebar: We never see any of those people from the opening segment again. The Russos were just guests at the wedding. Leo screwed up his toast to the point where he asked the videographer to edit it out.)

Many a scene in “Somewhere ...” is set at various functions at the Versailles, and at the Russo family home, where the extended clan gathers every Sunday early in the afternoon and you get the feeling nobody leaves the table until the sun is close to setting, what with all the back-and-forth banter and Mama Russo (June Gable) exhorting everyone to “Mangia tutti! Mangia!”

When Sticks (so nicknamed because of his height) brings his new girlfriend Danielle (a wonderful Sadie Stanley) to one such dinner, you might think Danielle would be overwhelmed and intimidated—but not this free-thinking, independent-minded spitfire. She speaks her mind and has strong opinions, earning her the grudging respect of the men at the table, though Sticks’ mom instantly dislikes her. (Angela’s reasons for clinging to her son go far beyond the usual overprotective Italian mother cliché. Having survived a bout with breast cancer, she’s fearful of the world, of change, of not having her boy close by.)

Jacob_Ward_and_Sadie_Stanley_in_Somewhere_in_Queens_PhotoCredit_Mary_Cybulski_1_rgb.jpg

Leo’s teen son Sticks (Jacob Ward) is certain that Danielle (Sadie Stanley) is the love of his life.

Courtesy of Roadside Attractions

Sticks is convinced he’s found the love of his life in Danielle, just as his father found his mother when they were teenagers, but Danielle says they’re just beginning their lives and they need to explore the world, separately. She breaks things off. Sticks falls into a deep depression, barely leaving his room. And this is when “Somewhere in Queens” takes a leap that will make you feel a little queasy and isn’t entirely convincing, with Leo pleading with Danielle to get back together with Sticks, just for a couple of weeks, just to help Sticks get his confidence back for a tryout with Drexel. It’s a well-intentioned but terribly ill-conceived and off-putting move by Leo, and it endangers our affection for this guy, and we know it’s going to backfire in spectacularly damaging fashion.

Thankfully, the writing by Romano and his former “Men of a Certain Age” colleague Mark Stegemann saves the day. Beyond the often hilarious dialogue and some slapstick humor, when “Somewhere in Queens” gets into serious territory, including Leo possibly having a fling with an attractive widow (Jennifer Esposito), the material is handled deftly and with intelligence and care.

Perhaps the most touching moment in the entire story occurs when Leo’s father finally finds it in himself to pay Leo a compliment, but does so without looking up from his desk, without looking at his son. Leo knows that’s the best his father can do, and he accepts that. Leo often goes too far in the other direction when it comes to his own parenting approach, and he comes dangerously close to ruining things with Sticks, but he’s a genuinely decent man at heart, and despite all the ribbing and criticism Leo takes every day of his life, his family knows and appreciates that.

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Somewhere in queens, common sense media reviewers.

Great, grounded family comedy has teen sex, lots of cursing.

Somewhere in Queens Movie Poster: Ray Romano and Laurie Metcalfe sit at a table at an event, smiling and laughing

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Families can be annoying and frustrating, but if y

The Russo family is tight-knit, supportive, loyal,

Working-class Italian American family is depicted

A drunken physical altercation (not quite a fight)

Two sexual situations. In one, a teen girl initiat

Profanity is part of nearly every sentence and use

Some brand references or visuals, like a Mustang a

Drinking beer and wine throughout, including getti

Positive Messages

Families can be annoying and frustrating, but if you have one that's loving and supportive (even if their methods are misguided), be grateful. Compassion is a theme.

Positive Role Models

The Russo family is tight-knit, supportive, loyal, and involved with their community. Leo owns a successful construction company that employs much of the extended family. Teenage Dani isn't wholly role-model material, but her cheery outlook and point of view have the potential to be influential. She doesn't believe in following the proscribed or expected path, preferring to follow her own road, wherever that might lead her.

Diverse Representations

Working-class Italian American family is depicted with authenticity and complexity. While most of the cast is Italian American and White, Sticks' high school friends and parents include people of color. Sticks is living with anxiety, and his challenges are reflected through both his experience and his parents'. Some body diversity among female characters. Cancer survivor shares her worries and fears.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

A drunken physical altercation (not quite a fight) is played for laughs. A primary character is dealing with the emotional aftermath of being a cancer survivor.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Two sexual situations. In one, a teen girl initiates sex, unbuckling her partner's pants before getting into the back seat with an invitation. Attention to losing virginity. Conversations about sex. Women joke about the appearance of penises, and men make sexual comments about a woman.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Profanity is part of nearly every sentence and used by every character. Words include "ass," "damn," "d--k," "goddamn," "s--t," and "f--k." Also lots of insults: "a--hole," "bitch," "dummy," "half-wit," "idiot," "pain in the ass," "p--sies," "son of a bitch," "stupid," "tramp," "whore." "Oh my God" and "Jesus Christ!" used as exclamations.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Some brand references or visuals, like a Mustang and Range Rover used to indicate success.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Drinking beer and wine throughout, including getting drunk during a celebration.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that comedian Ray Romano wrote, directed, and stars in Somewhere in Queens, an affectionate comedy about an Italian American family in New York. The family is boisterous and outspoken, deeply involved in each other's lives, compassionate, and fiercely supportive. They also insult each other ("dummy," "half-wit") and curse a lot in their everyday conversation ("d--k," "f--k," much more). A teen's "first time" is initiated by his girlfriend, who talks to him about it first and unbuckles his pants. Many celebrations and get-togethers are featured, and adults drink wine and beer -- at one point, to excess. A primary character is dealing with the emotional aftermath of being a cancer survivor. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Somewhere in Queens Movie: White high school basketball player points up to the stands

Community Reviews

Parents say (1)

Based on 1 parent review

Humor and compassion

What's the story.

Living SOMEWHERE IN QUEENS, Leo ( Ray Romano ) is a devoted dad and husband whose life revolves around his large Italian American family. When his son, Sticks (Jacob Ward) -- who is living with anxiety -- is discovered by a college basketball scout, Leo becomes desperate for his boy to make the team. Will Sticks' new romance with Dani (Sadie Stanley), the wrong girl from the right side of the tracks, threaten his future? Meanwhile, Leo's brittle, no-nonsense wife, Angela ( Laurie Metcalf) , has kicked cancer but lives with a gripping fear of its return.

Is It Any Good?

Romano has created an engrossing, funny, entertaining portrait of an American family. His character, Leo, is only a few degrees away from his character on his hit TV series Everybody Loves Raymond -- a lovable schlub who cares deeply about his family but makes cringeworthy choices. Still, Leo's desperation to help his son is one that many parents will be able to relate to: He's sure that if he can just get his son to college, the anxiety -- and Sticks' future -- will take care of themselves, but the romance seems to be threatening it all. Some might look at this comedy as Romano's My Big Fat Italian Wedding, but that doesn't reduce its honesty, impact, or humor.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how Somewhere in Queens depicts the intensity of first love. How do our romantic relationships -- even (if not especially) the failed ones -- influence the person we become?

Romano says he made the film to realistically portray a New York Italian American family. How do the Russos compare to Italian American families in other movies and TV shows you've seen? Why is authentic representation important?

How does the film portray what it's like to suffer from anxiety? Why is it important to depict people living with mental health issues in a positive and realistic light?

How does Somewhere in Queens highlight the fact that even those who love us the most and want the best for us might have their own motivations for the advice they give?

Movie Details

In theaters : April 21, 2023
On DVD or streaming : June 6, 2023
Cast : Ray Romano , Laurie Metcalf , Sadie Stanley
Director : Ray Romano
Inclusion Information : Female actors
Studios : Lionsgate , Roadside Attractions
Genre : Comedy
Topics : Brothers and Sisters , High School
Character Strengths : Compassion
Run time : 106 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : language and some sexual material
Last updated : November 28, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

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Again Romano is borrowing from his own life, in this case his wife’s family in particular for the script he co-wrote with Mark Stegemann. This time he not only writes but also directs, produces and stars as Leo Russo, married to Angela ( Laurie Metcalf ) and bringing up a son, “Sticks” (Jacob Ward), whose talent for hoops in high school makes Dad proud especially when his son gets the unexpected opportunity to play college ball on a scholarship — a surprise since he was planning to skip college and go straight into the family construction business run by Leo’s father (Tony Lo Bianco) and where his brother (Sebastian Maniscalco) works. Trouble starts however when Sticks’ spirited girlfriend (Sadie Stanley) suddenly breaks up with him, an act he takes so hard it upends his basketball plans, something Leo is determined to go to great lengths to get back on track. This leads to not the best decisions, and lots of family strife.

He is lucky to have put together such a talented cast. Metcalf (who gets a classic final line in the film) is incapable of hitting a false note, even when things turn highly dramatic. Her Angela is a loving mom, fearful for her own future and that of her family who nevertheless holds them all together even as her husband teeters on the edge of calamity. Ward is understated and terrific as a kid who is somewhat fragile, and not really sure he wants what his dad insists is good for him. Lo Bianco and Maniscalco are fine as well in less defined roles they still make engaging. Stanley is a real firecracker as the girlfriend, and Jennifer Esposito makes the most of a role of an attractive neighbor who might be too much of a temptation for Leo is his worst moments.

Producers are Albert Berger and Rox Yerxa ( Little Miss Sunshine, Nebraska ) along with Romano and Stegemann. The film is looking for distribution, and based on the impressive results of Romano’s directorial debut I would say it shouldn’t be a problem finding the right place for it to land.

Title: Somewhere In Queens Distributor: Lionsgate Release date: April 21, 2023 Director: Ray Romano Screenwriters: Ray Romano and Mark Stegemann Cast: Ray Romano, Laurie Metcalf, Tony Lo Bianco, Sebastian Maniscalco, Jennifer Esposito, Jacob Ward, Sadie Stanley, Dierdre Friel, Jon Manfrellotti Rating: R Running time: 1 hr 47 min

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Somewhere in Queens’ on VOD, an Amusing Ties-That-Bind Dramedy Directed by and Starring Ray Romano

Where to stream:.

Somewhere in Queens

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Ray Romano sits in the director’s chair for the first time for Somewhere in Queens ( now streaming on VOD services like Amazon Prime Video ). He also stars in and co-writes the family dramedy, playing a working-class outer-borough husband and father and brother and uncle and son, because this is the type of family dramedy where everyone gets together for supper at noon every Sunday so they can sit around the table and bicker and bust each other’s balls. You know the type. But Romano, well, he can do a thing or two beyond his Everybody Loves Raymond ’90s sitcom pedigree – check out The Big Sick for the most well-rounded role of his career – and Queens proves that he ain’t half bad behind the camera, either.

SOMEWHERE IN QUEENS : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Leo (Romano) is always saying the dumbest shit. Sometimes he’s drunk, sometimes he’s sober. Once, he told his wife, bald from chemotherapy, that she looked like a mutant. He thought he was being funny, that it would cheer her up. But at that point in the movie, we know Angela (Laurie Metcalf) well enough that she wouldn’t be at all amused by that, and even then, she’s still with him after all these years. They seem to have a nice enough life in Queens, going to family gatherings and watching their son Matthew (Jacob Ward) play basketball. The latter is about to end, though, because he’s a senior in high school. The former, though – well, they’ll never end. There’s always a big shindig to attend at the local dining hall, and at the beginning of the movie it’s a wedding and at the end it’s a christening for the same couple’s baby and everyone sits around doing the math on when the kid was conceived. Family keeps making more family, and everyone keeps schlepping to the hall for cake and dancing and bickering and ball-busting.

There’s more context: Leo works for his father’s construction company, alongside his brothers and nephews. He’s kinda the sad sack around there, a little rumpled and goofy compared to the other guys, who tend to be stereotypical Italian slicksters. He’s always late for work, and when he runs, his brother says it looks like he has dook in his drawers (I’m paraphrasing). Leo cuts out early one day to catch Matthew’s last game; the kid is the star of the team, and if he leads them to a win, they’ll make the playoffs and Leo will stave off the melancholy of seeing it end. The kid has a heck of a game, but they don’t win, and this is when two major developments occur: One, they learn he has a girlfriend, Dani (Sadie Stanley), a cheery, spirited sweetheart who’s just too nice to win over his mother – his mother who, by the way, is what you’d call a tough cookie, and isn’t easily won over, so pity every girlfriend the kid ever brings home. And two, a talent scout spotted him and maneuvers him into a lucky, last-minute tryout for a basketball scholarship at Drexel University in Philadelphia.

Leo is thrilled for Matthew’s opportunity for three reasons: One, he loves watching the kid play and loves playing with the kid in the driveway. Two, it’ll get him out of Queens, and out of the obligation to work for the family construction business, which Leo sees as a dead end. And three, Leo’s favorite movie is Rocky , and he quotes it all the time, and as you all know, it’s set in Philly. That’s good old doofus Leo, and it’s worth noting how impressed he is by all the trees on the Drexel campus. Look at the trees, so many trees, aren’t the trees neat. “The campus has a Chipotle!” he brags. No wonder he’s the black sheep around here. Matthew’s even more so, being an unusually quiet kid who seems to have a little social anxiety, but finds his confidence on the basketball court. If Matthew no longer plays basketball, Leo worries, what’ll happen to the kid?

There’s a couple of key scenes that implicate a bunch of things: One, when Leo wraps up work for the day and Pamela (Jennifer Esposito), the attractive widow whose house they’re working on, shows him kindness and gives him a tiny snatch of positive attention, which he devours like a starving man who finds a peanut in the Gobi. And two, when Matthew brings Dani to supper and she fights back against all the bullshit his uncles and cousins dish out. And then Dani dumps the poor kid. Busts him right in half. He ain’t trying out for Drexel and he ain’t going to college. So Leo corners Dani, tells her the sad story of his fragile son, and gets her to un-break-up with him, just until the tryout, because otherwise, Matthew’ll end up just like him, stuck, pounding nails all day with his frickin’ idiot family. Consider the fuse lit on the atomic bomb we’re sitting on, just waiting for it to go off.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Queens features the most obnoxious regional-ethnic family gatherings since The Fighter , or maybe even My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 .

Performance Worth Watching: Romano hints at some deeper psychology within his character, but Leo’s ultimately more of a squooshy comedy construct. Especially in comparison to Angela, who Metcalf – one of the most underrated actresses of her generation; watch Lady Bird and see why – leavens with streaks of bitterness, frustration, fatalism and unshakeable love. Her nonverbals and the tone of her line readings make her a rather complex tough cookie.

Memorable Dialogue: Leo slightly drunkenly blubbers a message of goodwill to the happy married couple for their wedding video: “God bless to you and God bless the children that you’re gonna make for all of America.”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Somewhere in Queens is a lightly dramatic, warmhearted, frequently funny, offbeat shaggy dog of a movie. I liked it. Romano plays to his strengths, rooting his character in self-deprecation, counterbalanced by Metcalf’s rougher, angrier turn. But the dynamic between them is more than the henpecked and the, er, henpecker; it’s more complicated than that, yielding hints of a marriage that’s fraying around the edges but still fundamentally sound, like the carpet from the ’70s in your parents’ basement that just won’t die. Stanley is also excellent, playing a free spirit with an affluent, indifferent father who envies Matthew’s tight, attentive family; Dani is just the external catalyst the family needs to dent its ironclad routines. The only character here that deserves more is Matthew, who’s a bit of a blank, a plot device with hints of humanity.

So the film is a touch uneven screenplay-wise, but at its core it’s character-driven, if predictably so at times. That’s commendable, as is Romano’s ability to maintain a tone that’s light but never insubstantial. It’s a ties-that-bind story that trafficks in familiarities and is rooted by Romano’s slightly left-field, effortlessly amusing performance. And the writing is sharp enough to resist judgment of its characters; Romano and co-scripter Mark Stegemann avoid erecting a moral fence and placing these people on either side of it. (They could’ve rendered some of Leo’s siblings with a few less ethnically obvious traits, but they’re ultimately harmless.) In this corner of Queens, nobody’s right. Nobody’s wrong, either. Well, sometimes they’re slightly wrong, or slightly right. But that’s just life, isn’t it? And Somewhere in Queens is ever so slightly more like life than a movie, and that’s why it wins us over.

Our Call: Romano delivers a rock-solid dramedy for his first true multi-hyphenate creative effort. STREAM IT.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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Review: Somewhere in Queens — Movies for the Rest of Us with Bill Newcott

This isn’t simply a feel-good comedy about one quirky family’s reaction to some ripples in their accustomed dynamic, but a scrawled, jumbled blueprint of the entire family construct.

Bill Newcott

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Somewhere in Queens

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Run Time: 1 hour 46 minutes

Stars: Ray Romano, Laurie Metcalf

Writer/Director: Ray Romano

Ray Romano has spent his career examining the Life of the Lovable Schlub, and there’s a sense that Somewhere in Queens — a film he wrote, directed, and stars in — may be his master’s thesis on the subject.

From his formative standup routines to his long-running sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond , Romano has always struck that perilous balance between observation and condescension. His characters, and those around them, usually dabble in crass Noo Yawk stereotypes, loudly commenting on the world as seen through a filter that is at once cosmopolitan and provincial.

Here he plays Leo Russo, a good-natured but somewhat dim-witted husband and dad whose life has been spent in the service of his father (Tony Lo Bianco), owner of the family construction business. If Leo ever had any kind of ambition, it has long since been squashed by his father and younger brother (Sebastian Maniscalco), who treat him like a moron and act like his bloodline is the only reason he still has a job.

But Leo has a refuge from that world: A wife and son for whom he would do absolutely anything. Angela (Laurie Metcalf) has recently emerged from the dark night of a cancer scare, a chapter that has left her emotionally scarred yet stubbornly unwilling to seek solace with a survivor’s group.

What’s more, they are both enormously proud — if somewhat mystified — by the high school basketball success of their otherwise painfully shy and reclusive son, whose real name is Matthew but who everyone calls “Sticks” because of his long, athletic legs.

Like every other man in the Russo clan, Sticks seems destined to live his life bent over sawhorses cutting 2-by-4s down to size. In fact, when a college basketball talent scout holds out the possibility of a scholarship to Drexel University (in Philadelphia!) The Russos stare at him uncomprehendingly, as if he’s offering them tickets on NASA’s next Artemis moon flight.

The following Sunday, there’s a spirited extended family dinner debate about Sticks and college. Why should he waste four years, Leo’s father barks, when eventually he’d just end up buckling on a tool belt, anyway?

But Leo is insistent: Sticks will compete for the scholarship. There’s just one problem: The team try-outs are in two weeks, and Sticks’s mercurial girlfriend, Dani (Sadie Stanley), has just broken up with him. Already in a perpetually fragile emotional state, Sticks is virtually paralyzed by the development.

Desperate to see Sticks go on to basketball glory, Leo hatches a plan. And by that, I mean he hatches the worst kind of plan you can possibly imagine.

By now, you can probably sense that the stakes in Somewhere in Queens are, by movie standards, rather small potatoes. There’s not a life-or-death dilemma in sight, and it’s clear that the Russos comprise such a tight-knit — if loudly dysfunctional — family unit that no one here is ever going to fall by the wayside.

It would be enough to simply spend this hour-and-three-quarters in the company of Romano and Metcalf ( Roseanne ), who, with 28 Emmy nominations between them, have mastered the craft of efficiently — and hilariously — defining endearing characters (Metcalf gets to deliver one of the funniest last lines you’ll ever hear).

But writer/director Romano is not in sitcom mode here. He patiently draws us into this family’s orbit. Instinctively, Romano seems to understand that people most often show their true selves when breaking bread together. And so he sits us at their tables — many tables, from the Russos’ laden dining room table to a series of gaudy banquet tables to a wobbly café table overlooking a shopping mall atrium.

One by one, around those tables the Russos and others drop their defensive masks, offering grudging glimpses of not only the personal pains of loneliness, rejection, and old age, but also the blessings of pride, hope, and unqualified admiration. Even Leo, rising for once above the lovable lug role in which his family has cast him, discovers in his disastrously fumbling attempts to protect his son that no matter how badly things turn out, forgiveness can be forthcoming so long as your heart was truly in the right place.

Organically, it dawns on us this is not simply a feel-good comedy about one quirky family’s reaction to some ripples in their accustomed dynamic. As he so slyly did during his decade on Raymond , Romano draws for us a scrawled, jumbled blueprint of the entire family construct: the messy, incoherent, haphazard aggregate that somehow manages to pull itself together and build its own, immutably flawed, monument.

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Review: Ray Romano tackles familiar terrain in disappointing ‘Somewhere in Queens’

The ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ star makes his feature directing debut and stars in a comedy-drama about an Italian American construction worker in New Yorker dealing with chaotic family situations

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Sorry, but there had to have been a less icky and contrived way to create the requisite havoc here.

'Somewhere in Queens'

Rating: R, for language and some sexual material When: Opens Friday Where: Limited release Running time: 1 hour, 47 minutes

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Somewhere in Queens review: Ray Romano's directorial debut is slight
Review: Somewhere in Queens
"SOMEWHERE IN QUEENS"
Somewhere In Queens
‘Somewhere in Queens’ Movie Review
'Somewhere in Queens' Interview: Ray Romano

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Somewhere in Queens movie review (2023)
Somewhere in Queens. Ray Romano 's "Somewhere in Queens" is an unusual film set in the real world, about a father who is so obsessed with seeing his hoop star son go to college on a basketball scholarship that he screws up at work, sleepwalks through his own midlife crisis, and alienates his family. There's a type of viewer who reads that sort ...
Somewhere in Queens
Somewhere in Queens. 90% Tomatometer 60 Reviews 92% Audience Score 100+ Verified Ratings Leo Russo (Ray Romano) lives a simple life in Queens, New York with his wife Angela (Laurie Metcalf), their ...
'Somewhere in Queens' Review: Rooting for the Underdog
No respect, or not enough respect. In any event, the series is now a thing of the past, and Romano is taking a turn behind the camera for his feature directing debut, "Somewhere in Queens ...
Somewhere in Queens
T.J. Callahan AWFJ.org. Somewhere in Queens is helicopter parenting gone wild. Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Dec 7, 2023. Tim Grierson Screen International. TOP CRITIC. The film takes ...
Somewhere in Queens Review: Ray Romano's Sweet, Safe ...
June 10, 2022 9:46 pm. "Somewhere in Queens". Editor's note: This review was originally published at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival. Roadside Attractions releases the film in theaters on Friday ...
Ray Romano and Laurie Metcalf in 'Somewhere in Queens' Review
Ray Romano and Laurie Metcalf in 'Somewhere in Queens': Film Review | Tribeca 2022. The actor's first feature as a director is an ensemble comic drama about a family man who becomes too ...
Review
3 min. ( 3 stars) The impressive directorial debut of Ray Romano, "Somewhere in Queens" is set in the milieu of a working-class Italian American family in the titular New York borough, a place ...
Somewhere in Queens (2022)
Somewhere in Queens: Directed by Ray Romano. With Ray Romano, Laurie Metcalf, Jacob Ward, Sadie Stanley. Leo and Angela Russo live a simple life in Queens, surrounded by their overbearing Italian-American family. When their son 'Sticks' finds success on his high-school basketball team, Leo tears the family apart trying to make it happen.
Somewhere in Queens review: Ray Romano makes directorial debut
Somewhere in Queens. review: Ray Romano's directorial debut is slight, but moving. Ray Romano writes, directs, and stars in this familiar, heartwarming story of a father offering misguided help to ...
'Somewhere in Queens' Review: Ray Romano Steps Behind the Camera
'Somewhere in Queens' Review: What's Not to Love About Ray Romano's Directorial Debut? Reviewed online, June 9, 2022. In Tribeca Film (Spotlight Narrative).
'Somewhere in Queens' Review: Ray Romano Is the MVP in ...
Somewhere in Queens spends a lot of time establishing the Russo family rapport, their fairly insular world, and the setting, the latter of which is so important that it's the title of the movie ...
'Somewhere in Queens' review: Ray Romano movie charms but falters
By Gary Goldstein. April 20, 2023 6 AM PT. Ray Romano's deeply earnest, semiautobiographical dramedy, "Somewhere in Queens," starts off with such evocative charm that it's both a surprise ...
Somewhere In Queens Review: Ray Romano Shines As A Father Lost In His Ways
Somewhere in Queens starts off as Ward's movie but slowly becomes about Romano's character.This move is a little bumpy and there's a case for the film being slightly longer. Sticks' basketball arc is compelling and there is almost a sports movie hiding in the first act, but the time spent with him is split between school, sports, and love, with the latter being the script's main focus.
'Somewhere in Queens' review: Everybody ribs Ray Romano in his
Everybody ribs Ray Romano in his delightful directorial debut 'Somewhere in Queens' TV veteran stars in sharply funny movie as a likable schlub who dotes on his basketball player son.
Somewhere in Queens Movie Review
Humor and compassion. This is a mid budget movie, which translates to natural acting and the sense of something authentic. It is a charming and profound story with a surprise ending that is psychologically affirming. Ray Romano) plays a flawed but loving father and husband.
Somewhere in Queens
Leo Russo (Ray Romano) lives a simple life in Queens, New York with his wife Angela (Laurie Metcalf), their shy but talented son "Sticks" (Jacob Ward), and Leo's close-knit network of Italian-American relatives and neighborhood friends. Happy enough working at the family construction business alongside his father (Tony Lo Bianco) and younger brother (Sebastian Maniscalco), Leo lives each ...
Somewhere in Queens REVIEW
Natasha Alvar · April 24, 2023. Somewhere in Queens. Ray Romano has made me laugh all my life. Everybody Loves Raymond was constantly playing in our household growing up, and when I got older he ...
'Somewhere In Queens' Review: Ray Romano & Laurie Metcalf In ...
The film is looking for distribution, and based on the impressive results of Romano's directorial debut I would say it shouldn't be a problem finding the right place for it to land. Title ...
'Somewhere in Queens' Ray Romano Streaming Movie Review: Stream It Or
Sex and Skin: None. Our Take: Somewhere in Queens is a lightly dramatic, warmhearted, frequently funny, offbeat shaggy dog of a movie. I liked it. Romano plays to his strengths, rooting his ...
Review: Somewhere in Queens
Run Time: 1 hour 46 minutes. Stars: Ray Romano, Laurie Metcalf. Writer/Director: Ray Romano. Ray Romano has spent his career examining the Life of the Lovable Schlub, and there's a sense that Somewhere in Queens — a film he wrote, directed, and stars in — may be his master's thesis on the subject.. From his formative standup routines to his long-running sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond ...
'Somewhere in Queens' review: Ray Romano movie charms but falters
Somewhere in "Queens" lies a stronger, more unique and inspiring story about family, culture and the place we call home. It's too bad Romano didn't fully find it. But as is, this ...
Somewhere in Queens
Somewhere in Queens is a 2022 American comedy drama directed by Ray Romano, in his directorial debut, from a screenplay by Romano and Mark Stegemann.The film stars Romano, Laurie Metcalf, Jacob Ward, Sadie Stanley, Jennifer Esposito, Dierdre Friel, Jon Manfrellotti, Sebastian Maniscalco, and Tony Lo Bianco. It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 10, 2022, and was released in the ...
Somewhere in Queens (2023) Movie Reviews
Leo Russo (Ray Romano) lives a simple life in Queens, New York with his wife Angela (Laurie Metcalf), their shy but talented son . ... Somewhere in Queens (2023) Critic Reviews and Ratings Powered by Rotten Tomatoes Rate Movie. Close Audience Score. The percentage of users who made a verified movie ticket purchase and rated this 3.5 stars or ...

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Reviewed online, June 9, 2022. In Tribeca Film (Spotlight Narrative). Running time: 106 MIN.

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