Traveler intern Daniel Bortz reviews City Island, an indie that’s stealing the hearts of movie goers and travelers alike across the country.
City Island, a small community on the edge of 
New York City, provides a sharp contrast to the bustling Big Apple it calls its neighbor. Surrounded by the waters of the western Long Island Sound and Eastchester Bay, the island boasts a rich nautical history, with ship building and a booming oyster business sustaining the town’s industry. In the late 1800s, City Island men, known for constructing and rebuilding large luxury yachts, called the shipyard and the Sound waters home. Yet those unfamiliar with the dockhands and ship builders that fueled the Civil War and World War II may not have heard of City Island until now.
That’s partly because the island has received a wave of recent media attention with the hype surrounding City Island, an independent film that debuted at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival and garnered praise from critics across the country. The movie stars Andy Garcia and Julianna Margulies as a married couple who sneak cigarettes while the other’s not looking and keep a load of other secrets from their spouse. They have two kids, a college-aged daughter who picks up stripping to make money after losing her scholarship, and a teenage son exploring his sexual desires (he’s drawn to larger women and has a fetish for feeding them). Stints by costars Alan Arkin and Emily Mortimer add two more talented, celebrity performers to the cast, but it’s not the film’s big names winning over audiences nationwide.
Find out what makes City Island tick after the jump.
Movie goers are falling in love with City Island, a world apart from
NYC and the stereotypical Bronx neighborhood. The island’s inhabitants
are grouped as either “mussel-suckers” (new islanders) or
“clamdiggers” (longtime natives), a distinction Vince Rizzo (Garcia) makes in the film’s opening narration. It’s one of those
communities whose residents have lived there for generations, growing
up in houses built by grandparents or great grandparents and living
in the same household as adults, staying there to raise a family. Of
course this is still the Bronx, and the town does boast its share of
tough, dark-haired “New Yawkers,” but the film taps into the spirit of
these locals and produces an entertaining look at families and
relationships that’s genuine and heartfelt.
Viewers captivated by the film’s charm can learn more about City Island at the town’s Historical Society and Nautical Museum, free and open to the public every Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. And those not yet acquainted with the quaint fishing town can start with the movie here.
Photo: Courtesy of Cineson Productions and Medici Entertainment.
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New York – City Island – United States – Long Island – Movies
