Adding to our collection of Boston Irish neighbor movies is the rough and racist “Monument Ave.” The film itself isn’t racist, but it honestly depicts some of the historically nastier attitudes that tend to get whitewashed over on St. Patrick’s Day. Denis Leary beats a black man just for walking into his neighborhood; if this seems unnecessarily brutal, we advise you do a Google image search for “The Soiling of Old Glory.”
The Boston neighborhood in question is Charlestown. This movie portrays Townies as universally addicted alcohol, cocaine and hockey. Leary and friends have a hilarious drug fueled conversation early on – if you’ve every thought it would be genius to videotape yourself and your friends drunk, it won’t top this scene.
The film takes a heavy turn soon after, and never comes back from the dark. Bullets aimed at snitching family members threaten neighborhood loyalties. “Monument Ave” slows at times, and interrupts itself with supposed childhood photos of the characters. The forced emotional poignancy doesn’t really work with the escalating violence. Denis Leary's character doesn’t seem the type to sit around with a slide projector.
Overall, the movie is well done. The dialogue is excellent, most of the acting is good, and it has nostalgic touches like the hand knit afghan on the couch. Hey! My Irish grandma used to knit those too! Still, this movie paints a bleak portrait. It’s a decent movie about some very un-decent people.
Final Score = B
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