‘Fresh Kills’ Review: Jennifer Esposito’s Debut Depicts Mob Life From the Wives’ and Daughters’ POV
variety.comDennis Harvey Film Critic Mob narratives seldom place women front and center, unless it’s in a flat-out comedy (“Married to the Mob,” recent “Mafia Mamma”) or campy TV movies like “Mafia Princess” and “Bella Mafia.” No stranger to the genre as an actress, Jennifer Esposito attempts to balance that ledger with her debut as writer-director, “Fresh Kills.” This solid drama centers on a family not unlike “The Sopranos,” but with its patriarch mostly pushed to the background.
The focus here is on wives and daughters, who must turn a blind eye to criminal doings from which they both benefit and suffer the consequences.
Originally a Tribeca premiere, “Fresh Kills” has been traveling the festival circuit and should prove a viable item for streaming platforms and broadcasters.
After a framing sequence that fast-forwards to a later moment of crisis, we meet the Larussos in 1987 as they’re moving on up to a “better life” from their old Brooklyn one, taking over a fairly palatial Staten Island address.
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