P.J. Brown

Brooklyn, 1985. With the mob world as a backdrop, three life-long friends struggle with questions of love, loss and loyalty.

Brooklyn Rules -- Three friends struggle with life on the mean streets of 1980s Brooklyn.

"The Sopranos" scribe Terence Winter brings his Mafia stories to the big screen in this indie drama about a trio of young men who grew up together on the Brooklyn streets but have decidedly different dreams. While two of them (Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jerry Ferrara) want to leave the street behind, the other (Scott Caan) feels the lure of the mob's flashy lifestyle -- and soon gets them all in trouble. Alec Baldwin and Mena Suvari also star.

Adulterer Nick (James Gandolfini) must face the bleak fallout of his exposed affair with foul-mouthed Tula (Kate Winslet) after his stolid wife (Susan Sarandon) and daughters Constance (Mary-Louise Parker), Baby (Aida Turturro) and Rosebud (Mandy Moore) wise up. When they can't find the right words to express their anger, everyone breaks out into song in writer-director John Turturro's dark comedy. Steve Buscemi and Christopher Walken co-star.

Three friends struggle with life on the mean streets of 1980s Brooklyn.

Three friends struggle with life on the mean streets of 1980s Brooklyn.

A musical set in Bensonhurst, N.Y. In it a two-timing husband must choose between his mistress and his beleaguered wife.

Michael 'Mike' Turner is handsome, bright, a resourceful law student and perfect gentleman. Mike were perfect hadn't he been born in late 20th century Brooklyn, a New York borough dominated by the mob, in his case Carmine Mancuso, who luckily chooses to protect bright Mike, even against mob ruffian Gino, and his two inseparable buddies. Cocky Carmine Mancuso actually chooses to join the bloody business, sparing only his youth friends. Third mate Bobby Canzoneri, whose equally dumb parents hosted the gang as kids, naively aims no higher then tenure in the US Post. Yet Bobby ends up dead when a mob war erupts.

Romance & Cigarettes -- A musical set in Bensonhurst, N.Y. In it a two-timing husband must choose between his mistress and his beleaguered wife.

Belushi and wife, Walker, are suburbanites who live a comfortable if humdrum life. Their mundane existence is changed dramatically when Aykroyd and his wife, Moriarty, move in next door. While Walker finds the chaos they bring a refreshing change, Belushi is appalled by their behavior.

Nick Murder (James Gandolfini) is an ironworker who has been married for years to Kitty (Susan Sarandon), who works as a seamstress and is the mother of Nick's three daughters. While Nick loves his wife, his head is turned by Tula (Kate Winslet), a sexy salesgirl at a lingerie shop, and soon they're having a passionate affair. When Kitty finds out about Nick's infidelity, she becomes enraged and kicks him out of the house, forcing him to decide what he really wants out of life and what is most important to him.

Powerful and sweeping, the critically acclaimed Cradle Will Rock, starring Hank Azaria, Joan Cusack, John Cusack, Bill Murray, and Susan Sarandon, takes a kaleidoscopic look at the extraordinary events of 1930s America. From high society to life on the streets, director Tim Robbins (Dead Man Walking) brings Depression-era New York City to vivid life. It's a time when DaVincis are given to millionaires who help fund the Mussolini war effort and Nelson Rockefeller commissions Mexican artist Diego Rivera to paint the lobby of Rockefeller Center. A time when a young Orson Welles and a troupe of passionate actors risk everything to perform the infamous musical "The Cradle Will Rock." As threats to their freedom and livelihood loom larger, they refuse to give into censorship. Based on actual events, Cradle Will Rock will move you.