“Yonkers Joe.” That’s what a moviegoer whispered as she zipped past one night during the Starz Denver Film Festival.
She said it like she was giving the skinny to Benjamin Braddock in “The Graduate.” Plastics. “Yonkers Joe.”
Written and directed by Robert Celestino, the tight, character-driven drama about a con man willing to gamble on just about everything except his only child who has Down syndrome, begins a theatrical run today at the FilmCenter.
Chazz Palminteri is the Joe of the title. Along with a team of the usual yet compelling suspects, he lives off modest scams. He and his cohort, including girlfriend Janice, work the craps tables in Atlantic City. They stage poker games. They fix dice and palm cards. It’s not flashy, but it pays the mortgage.
It also pays for Joe Jr.’s care at an institution. Only Yonkers Joe’s high-functioning son is nearing 21 and must move to a group home. He doesn’t want to.
Palminteri isn’t afraid to be unpleasant. Joe is selfish, distant, constantly furious at his son.
Joe Jr. is angry right back.
Celestino based his con men on the guys who took him under their wings as a young man. His interest in the scam hints at David Mamet- style intrigue but without the precious patois.
If the con camaraderie feels familiar, the struggle of a father to accept his son — and vice versa — holds some fine surprises.
At first, Tom Guiry’s performance as Joe Jr. was distracting. Having seen Ilana Tractman’s remarkable documentary “Praying With Lior” about a “high-functioning” Down syndrome youth preparing for his bar mitzvah, Guiry’s fluidity with language rang false. Not, however, his grasp of Joe Jr.’s emotional depths.
As Janice, Christine Lahti is the pivot between father and son. The scenes between Janice and Joe Jr. are sweet, harrowing, movie-altering.
“Yonkers Joe”
Written and directed by Robert Celestino. Photography by Michael Fimognari. Starring Chazz Palminteri, Christine Lahti, Thomas Guiry, Michael Lerner, Linus Roache, Michael Rispoli. Rated R for language including sexual references. 102 minutes. Starz FilmCenter.
