I had a lot of respect for Joseph Pupello’s desire to deliver a gangster picture that’s less about gangsters and more about our personal lives. It’s rough around the edges, and the screenplay by Peter Panagos isn’t entirely cohesive, but they do manage to concoct an interesting storyline for a central character who is being pulled in all kinds of obligations. The one big goal in his a life involving mobsters, and assassinations, and a pregnant wife is to live as the person he really wants to be, and that makes his struggle pretty turbulent.
Bobby Russo was born into a life of organized crime. From early on, he learned many lessons from his family including: Loyalty, Respect, and Honor. He learned secrets can be dangerous. All grown up, Bobby now realizes that the most dangerous secrets are his own. “Dress Code” is very much a movie about toxic masculinity and the kinds of costumes we can put on to survive. Director Pupello and writer Panagos bring us in to the beginnings of young Bobby, an Italian kid forced to live with an abusive father and submissive mother. When he begins developing a lifestyle that clashes with his father’s own personal views, he is forced to push his secrets well in to the darkness.
The narrative, set in the 1990’s, jumps back and forth between Bobby as a kid (Nicholas Giordano) and Bobby as an adult, now rising in the crime world. The one big narrative flaw is that Panagos never gives us must justification for why Bobby is living a life of crime. Is it more about the toxic masculinity? Is he proving something to himself? Is he trying to appease his uncle (Frank Osso)? Writer Panagos never quite clarifies that enough for the audience, transforming the development of Bobby’s adulthood in to an abrupt change in lifestyle. The movie also loses momentum in the second act, revolving a lot more on gangster interplay and politics and doesn’t get back on to the track until the final act.
That said, Pupello’s direction is strong and with the talented Gerard Garilli, they develop Bobby in to a believable and sympathetic protagonist. The way he grapples with his identity is especially sad, particularly when the film highlights his own personal moments of vulnerability. “Dress Code” is a completely out of the ordinary, albeit good gangster movie; it’s one that gives the genre a more humane twist that I often appreciated.
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