In the rail yards of Queens, contractors repair and rebuild the city's subway cars. These contracts are lucrative, so graft and corruption are rife. When Leo Handler gets out of prison, he finds his aunt married to Frank Olchin, one of the big contractors; he's battling with a minority-owned firm for contracts.
Acting
Phoenix's sweaty, desperate Willie is career-best supporting work.
Direction
Gray's Queens is a suffocating, beautifully grimy character.
Cinematography
Harris Savides makes industrial decay look like Renaissance painting.
Director
James Gray
Mark Wahlberg
Leo Handler
Joaquin Phoenix
Willie Gutierrez
Charlize Theron
Erica Soltz
James Caan
Frank Olchin
Ellen Burstyn
Val Handler
Faye Dunaway
Kitty Olchin
Steve Lawrence
Arthur Mydanick
Andy Davoli
Raymond Price
Tony Musante
Seymour Korman
Victor Argo
Paul Lazarides
Tomas Milian
Manuel Sequiera
Robert Montano
Hector Gallardo
Victor Arnold
Albert Granada
Louis Guss
Nathan Grodner
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Gray based this on his own father's corruption scandal in the 1980s Queens rail yards. The family dinner scenes? Basically autobiographical.
The studio buried this film after Gray badmouthed Harvey Weinstein in a Cannes press conference. It took years to find its audience as a hidden gem.
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