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From the moment our kids are born, we spend a whole lot of time imagining what their future will look like: who they’ll become, what they’ll accomplish. And in Somewhere in Queens, everything changes for an Italian family from Queens when they find that their kid might have more options than they once thought.
Somewhere in Queens stars Ray Romano and Laurie Metcalf as Leo and Angela Russo. For their timid only son, Sticks (Jacob Ward), the future once seemed clear: he’d graduate from high school and then spend the rest of his life working for the family’s construction business, just like his dad. But everything changes at the last basketball game of his senior year. And when a college basketball scout promises to put in a good word for Sticks at some of the smaller colleges, the Russos begin to consider a different future for their son.
As Sticks suddenly finds himself with the possibility of a college scholarship, Leo becomes determined to make things happen for his son—to help him get out of Queens for a while instead of spending the rest of his life being bossed around by his uncle. But his dreams for his son soon turn to desperation.
Best known for his long run on TV’s Everybody Loves Raymond, director and co-writer Romano takes a little bit of Raymond—his overbearing family and his general downtroddenness—and builds it from a half-hour sitcom into an easygoing yet meaningful drama about parents’ struggle to let go and let their kids forge their own path. For underachiever Leo, a basketball scholarship for Sticks means four more years in the bleachers as a loyal (and well-loved) ball player’s dad. But for cancer survivor Angela, it means giving up precious time with her only child. And no one really stops to think about what it will mean for Sticks, this awkward kid who’s just trying to figure out grown-up life.
In the midst of the drama, though, there’s plenty of humor, too, as the Russo family gathers for dinner every Sunday or as they meet up at the local banquet hall to celebrate a wedding or a christening or an anniversary—whatever their Italian family members are celebrating this week. These gatherings bring plenty of laughs, but they also give the family its strong personality and its strong bonds. And that grounds this charming and relatable story of parents and children and the struggle to give up control.
Though it has some of the kind of working class Italian family comedy that fans have come to expect from Romano, Somewhere in Queens takes it a step further, adding some heart to the usual stories of marriage and family drama.
You can meet the Russo family when Somewhere in Queens arrives in theaters on April 21, 2023.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
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