Bostonian Sad That Boston Movie Makes Bostonians Look Like Freaks
There's long been a dearth of good movies set in (and especially filmed in) poor Boston (a.k.a. "Philly On the Charles"). Except The Departed and Mystic River but both of those were by dudes from real places (New York and California, specifically). So Slate's Patrick Radden Keefe is kinda excited about this new movie from Ben "Almost From Boston" Affleck, We Own the Gone Baby Gangster Clayton. Marky Mark and Russell Crowe are in it probably? But it was filmed in the real-life Boston with real-life Bostonians! Except the Bostonians were a little too "real life" and they make Boston look bad.
All the extras have cleft lips, apparently, and no discernable jobs! The women are "sickly skinny" and the men are "gin-blossomed."
"It's Dorchester by way of Diane Arbus," Keefe says, and also it does for Boston "what Deliverance did for Appalachia." Whoops!
Sure, Ben cast mostly real locals he saw wandering around this blue-collar neighborhood to play locals found wandering around this blue-collar neighborhood, but couldn't he have cleaned 'em up a little? He got rid of all the Vietnamese people, how hard would it be to find an semi-attractive extra from Cambridge or somewhere to ship in?
