A Bronx Tale

Robert De Niro made his directorial debut with this expanded adaptation of Chazz Palminteri's one-character play. DeNiro's role of Lorenzo Anello, an Italian-America bus driver, is secondary to the part of his son Calogero, played by young Francis Capra. The top dog in Calogero's Bronx neighborhood ...more

A handsomely mounted coming-of-age story, Robert De Niro's directorial debut, an adaptation of co-star Chazz Palminteri's play, finds the veteran actor treading old ground, exploring a 1960s' New York ankle-deep in Mafia culture. But while the material might superficially seem familiar, what's remarkable about the film comes from De Niro and Palminteri's decision to cast the familiar in a new light, emphasizing borough folkways and the details of day-to-day life rather than criminal intrigues. A ...more