City Island

Movies like City Island come from life—not a comic book, a TV show, a previously released movie or even a boardroom pitch meeting. While its characters embrace how over-the-top they are, and while some of the story is implausible, City Island can’t just be a fabrication that came to writer-director Raymond De Felitta in a dream—he knows these people and these situations. The film features an eccentric and loud bunch of Brooklynites who feel very real, because De Felitta has already spent years figuring out what makes them tick. Because of that—and because of solid performances throughout, particularly one by Andy Garcia—City Island emerges as one of the true gems of the first half of the year.