Movie Review: Dress Code
One-liner: an unconventional refresh and strong key performances override genre tropes in this flawed yet compelling indie crime drama thriller.
Dress Code is an unconventional mafia movie about a young man who must guard his secret life when he’s inducted into the family. A feature film directorial debut for Joseph Pupello, it’s written by Peter Panagos, after the two worked together on Love in a Coffee Shop. Being a crime drama thriller about a mobster in the making, it’s not unusual for a film like Dress Code to have an extensive male cast, led by Gerard Garilli, Freddie Maas and Frank Osso.
It’s difficult to comment on the nature of Bobby’s secret without tipping into the arena of spoilers. While the trailer and title drop hints, the undercurrent offers a welcome and even inspirational refresh on the genre. Playing like a typical mob movie with the coarse language, bars, Italian restaurant, collection raids and makeshift grave site, Dress Code mixes things up with a skeleton in the closet. Serving as a character portrait of Bobby’s life, a non-linear narrative intersperses flashbacks to his youth to offer a broader context to his current situation.
Dress Code could have easily ventured into the realm of comedy with its high contrast concept. It would have been interesting to see the film take place almost entirely within Bobby’s secretive universe, adding to the overall complexity and duality. However, as tempting as that prospect may be, Dress Code plays it relatively safe by keeping in touch with the tried-and-tested trappings of the mob genre. To this end, it manages well… navigating a familiar space with a sense of authenticity and fly-on-the-wall intimacy.
Gerard Garilli takes the lead as present day Bobby, who has worked his way into his Uncle Rock’s favour at the behest of his aging bigoted father, Dominic. Garilli balances the character quite masterfully, see-sawing Bobby’s vulnerability and strength as his doting Uncle gives him an introduction to his new life in the mafia. Frank Osso has a resonance with the late Ray Liotta, imbuing a similar paradoxical performance to echo and empathise with Bobby’s disposition. Then, it’s a fiery performance from Freddie Maas that keeps things on edge as his cantankerous attitude runs rampant in every scene he steals. Counterbalancing the machismo and ferocity is the more level-headed Maria Marianaro as Bobby’s sweetheart, Claire.
“I wasn’t made to hate.”
A self-assured independent film, there’s a curious tension between the story’s reliance on well-worn mafia tropes and its adventurous underground spirit. The themes of prejudice, power abuse and overbearing patriarchy are rife as one would expect, while frequent coarse language eventually becomes punctuation in this neighbourhood empire. Unfortunately, there are times when elements, such as dialogue and postures, do become overfamiliar to cliched. However, the golden thread of the slow-boiling secret offers a fresh spin, which does wonders even if it could have been further exploited to create suspense.
While this modest crime drama thriller makes some magic and carries out its vision, it doesn’t reach its full potential. Dress Code curates its world with sensitivity, immersing audiences into the ’90s with memorabilia that verges on the point of distraction only to provide one of those classic frozen-in-time period sets for the family home. In terms of casting, it would have been good to get a better likeness for the kids as adults but sometimes this isn’t always possible when trying to find the right balance with performance. Then, while their ages aren’t expressly mentioned, perhaps a few touches from hair and make up could have offered a more genuine sense of aging for the actors who bridge both worlds.
The cinematography isn’t without inspiration but could have been a bit more adventurous in some of the more intimate one-on-one scenes where things tend towards stagnation with fixed long shots. Some more thought could have been given to a few of the scene transitions where there’s a visual jolt or simply not enough finesse. Then, Dress Code attempts to get by with momentary bursts of violence that are unfortunately underserved and abandoned too quickly.
Dress Code’s unusual slant on the mob crime drama dynamic makes for curious to compelling viewing. This is further enhanced by earnest and well-balanced key performances with a powerhouse turn by Maas. This is a bold and entertaining indie film, in spite of its flaws, which leverages its unconventional mob tale turned character portrait to good effect. Leaning into the genre’s tropes, it holds a familiar line for ardent fans but does enough to refresh with its unique perspective.
The bottom line: Promising
