User Reviews

On its face, I would give this film 7 stars because it has gripping characters and story telling.

If it had just been a film about 3 children growing up in a lower middle class complex in Queens, it would be effective in showing the turmoils of their lives in 1962. The acting is great, the cinematography and directing are effective, and the characters are very engaging.

Where this film failed, and the reason it lost 3 stars in my estimation, is in that it exploits the tragedy of the Kitty Genovese murder for no purpose other than to attract viewers. The attack is barely addressed at all, and there are huge holes in the story once "it" begins. Now, there's nothing wrong with making film based on, or inspired by, true events. However, this film does nothing for the story or what truly happened on that day to merit its use of those events as a way to draw an audience.

There are a lot of lessons to be learned from what happened that night, and if this film addressed those issues, it would be a legitimate tribute to Ms. Genovese and would at least teach the audience about the bystander effect. Instead, this film does not teach anything as most of the characters, except one, are completely unaware that anything was happening (for different reasons). Shame on whomever used this tragedy as a marketing ploy.

Trigger Warning(s): Sexual Assault & Child Abuse

Main Storyline

In this one building filled with eccentric people, the focus primarily is on three families. One being 5-year-old Troy's (Marquise Gary) family comprised of his mother Joyce (Samira Wiley) and much older father Archibald (Michael Potts) who are struggling with how to raise Troy in 1960s America. Then there is Billy (Evan Fine) whose mom Mary (Maria Dizzia) is on edge, a housewife with a husband, Bob (Jamie Harrold) who may have lost her job, and while she is trying to keep her cool, between Billy's antics and how distant Bob seems at times, she sometimes seems on the verge of nervous breakdown. Leaving Debbie (Sophia Lillis). Debbie is an odd little girl who counts her steps in fear that one too many may mean a disaster. Because of this, and a rumor going around about her family and insurance fraud, only a nice tutor named Kitty (Christina Brucato) seems to take time with her. Not to imply her grandparents aren't kind, but the circumstances of them getting Debbie implies there is more going on than revealed to us.

Highlights

The Lives of The Three Children: To me, if you focus solely on the eccentricities of the adults in the film, then the film is a muddled mess. However, if you focus on the kids then you see how these adults and what they've been through, and are going through, are affecting their children. Take Troy for example. His father, despite the boy only being 5, is already trying to mold him into a man. Has him boxing with him, and trying to make it seem the dreams Joyce has for him, going to college, aren't realistic. Not because the boy isn't capable, but because of Archibald's upbringing and his understandings of race and opportunity. Much less, this pride in not having to ask for anything.

The other children as well have parents whose issues with themselves are inflicted on their children. Debbie seems to be trying to figure out a way to deal with her mother's absence, lack of friends, and grandparents who just don't understand. She finds some solace in Kitty, who is sweet on Debbie, but unfortunately, Debbie is 12 and Kitty is an adult.

Billy experiences something similar but rather than an adult being his confidant it is his older brother. For, you see, Mary is always giving Billy strikes for disobedience and if he gets enough he has to wear a sign that he has been bad and isn't supposed to be talked to. On top of that, he gets spankings, from his dad, when his mom really feels pushed to the limits.

Low Points

Too Weird For Its Own Good: An element of this movie is Billy's belief that aliens are going to come down and this is played up far too much. Almost to the point you'd think aliens really are going to come to this building in Queens and rather than this being a movie about 37 people who did nothing while someone was raped and murdered, it would be 37 people who hid from aliens as they abducted someone.

Overall: Negative (Skip It)

While arguably the analysis of the adults as parents, and how their parenting is affecting their children, can be seen as interesting, I must admit it took me a while to come up with that highlight. Reason being, for most of the movie I felt quite indifferent to it with its odd, sort of eerie, tone. A tone in which you do feel a bit curious as to who will be the victim that was ignored by 37 sets of eyes. However, once it became clear who the victim was and you saw everyone ignore or be distracted in their own way, and realized their distractions were not something of substance to drown out the screams and images burned into your mind, you are left with very little to take interest in. For even though the children all present interesting cases, the focus of the film is spread too thin to make any of their situations substantial enough to save this film from itself.

The title and all descriptions of the movie are about a brutally murdered woman, where there were 37 eye witnesses who did nothing to help. If I did not know that this was what the movie was supposed to be about I would never have have had the slightest idea. There is no murder. There is not even the suggestion of a murder ANYWHERE in the film. All we get is a boring "travelogue" of the lives of perhaps 5 people living in an apartment building. We get a couple arguing about the proper way to bring up a child. We get a crazy girl living with presumably her grandparents, and we get an alcoholic who walks around. Oh yeah, there's an elevator operator that operates an elevator. There is one scene that lasts 15 seconds or so, where we see a lady who stumbles on a stairwell in the building and then there is a blurrry suggestion of something that looks like another figure...you see a coat....and I thought...is that a rape? Is it a person who slippped on a banana peel...what's this? That scene presumably occurs at night....everyone is inside their apartments, arguing, or cooking eggs etc. There is no suggestion of a murder or witness or anything else and there are nowhere near 37 people in the cast of this movie....... It is about the aforementioned. "Normal" people riding an elevator, cooking eggs, arguing about petty nothings. The movie should be called "The boring day to day existence of 4 random people in an apartment building doing nothing. Again, in summary, there is ZERO plot, nothing that even suggests a murder. No witnesses to ANYTHING....and a movie about utterly NOTHING. I do recommend you see it because you won't believe me unless you do. I mean, if I saw a movie entitled...The Life Story of Abraham Lincoln ...and then saw a movie about Formula race car driving with one 5 second flash of an audience scene of 50,000 people at a race track and it seemed to look like, with a blurred panning camera sweep, that someone was wearing a black tall hat in the audience...that would make more sense then this thing. It's a matter of taste. I rate this as a NEGATIVE 100.