50 God-Tier Acting Moments Buried in Bad Movies
47. Junior's Accident - The Many Saints Of Newark
The Sopranos is one of the greatest TV shows of all time. Its prequel movie, on the other hand, was a disaster.
With far too many underdeveloped characters and plot lines, The Many Saints of Newark feels like a miniseries crammed awkwardly into a two-hour film, and due to this scattershot approach, most of the cast is wasted. The various young versions of iconic Sopranos characters don't get nearly enough screen time, with actors like Michael Gandolfini (Tony Soprano) and Vera Farmiga (Livia Soprano) being criminally sidelined.
Nevertheless, there is one cast member who plays a legacy character and who does leave his mark. That's the great Corey Stoll as Junior Soprano, Tony's horrible uncle who was beautifully played by Dominic Chianese in the original show. Stoll is uncannily convincing as a younger version of Junior, and it's a testament to Stoll that his performance is so memorable despite having little screen time.
His best moment comes late in the film, where Junior slips over on some stairs in the rain. In this moment, Stoll is everything Junior always was - he's pitiful, repulsive, and frighteningly angry at the same time, flawlessly capturing this petty tyrant.
In this moment, Stoll also screams out an infamous, very profane one-liner from season two of the show (if you know, you know!), and he nails the line delivery. As this moment shows, Stoll was a fantastic casting choice for the young Junior; maybe he should've been the lead of the whole movie? That would've rocked.