IFFB: Buddy Reviewed

I have to admit, I had no interest in seeing this movie. I didn't really know much about Buddy Cianci, nor did I have any interest in learning about him. I was supposed to see this movie called Home but after getting out of the last movie late, found there was no sitting room in the theater.

So, alas, I settled on Buddy (I'm probably the first to say that). I was happy to run into the nice young lady I had hung out with during Childstar the night before. She just saw Sundowning (which is being referred to as "the lobster movie") and didn't like it too much. I've been hearing the same thing from a couple people.


The filmmaker introduced the movie with a warning that it wasn't yet complete. The voiceover is a temp track, the soundtrack isn't final, and there may be some audio drop outs. I was expecting the worst.

Buddy Cianci was the longest running Mayor in Providence, RI. And this movie is to Buddy what Star Wars was to Anakin Skywalker. Actually Darth Vader and Buddy have quite a couple things in common. In the end of both of their careers, they were both considered bad guys. But for one reason or another people still loved them anyway. It's a true rise and fall story.

"He's such a contradiction because he seems to create his own problems, and he creates them when he's doing well," says one person in the film.

Buddy is credited for rebirth of Providence in the 1990s. Cianci was the first Italian mayor in a predominantly Irish city, where Irish mayors have always ruled.

He became a convicted felon after "kidnapping and assaulting" his best friend who was having an affair with his then-wife.

He did a talk radio show called The Buddy Show for a while, until a caller begged him to run for office again. He ran out of the station and quickly found City Hall where he put himself back in the running. Again, he was elected.

Buddy is a very funny guy who if he had been in a fictional movie would have been totally over the top and unreliable. He's larger than life with a used car salesman's attitude. Without a doubt the guy has charisma and that's probably why a lot of people love him.

He first ran as the anti-corruption candidate, and slowly became the corrupt machine-style boss we know and love.

Recently he was indicted on 27 counts of racketeering and bribes under "very little evidence", but only convicted of one of the 27. He's currently serving his 5 year sentence.

The movie sounds really boring on the page, but trust me, it's a comedy. You'll leave the theater loving the guy, and you won't know why. He's everything you should hate but somehow he seems to redeem himself. There’s some great retro campaign ads during the movie which ,as the woman who sat next to me put it, "were worth the price of admission alone."