Monument Ave.

A small Irish crew in the Charlestown district of Boston: they sell stolen cars, drink, take drugs and obey the rules of the neighbourhood. One of those rules is never to talk to the police. When the boss kills one of their own in front of everyone, the rule is tested. The film is not interested in organised crime. It is interested in the pact of silence: the neighbourhood knows the killer, knows his name, and still nobody speaks. It presents this not as betrayal but as a kind of survival religion. The form is raw and loose: long conversation scenes, bar interiors, dialogue that sounds improvised. Violence enters abruptly and is over at once. Ted Demme directed; Denis Leary stars and is one of the producers, and the character's world comes out of a milieu he knows. Ian Hart, Jason Barry, Martin Sheen and Famke Janssen are in the cast. Who it is for: viewers who like nineties American independent crime films and Boston stories. Who it is not for: anyone wanting plot. The film moves with almost none, and most of its characters are confined to a single scene.