Monument Ave.

Already Boston-based feature filmmaking seems in a rut -- take a tough blue-collar neighborhood, a conflicted hero, and some wiseguys, add a few variations, and you've got Next Stop, Wonderland, The North End, Southie, and now Ted Demme's Monument Ave. For its variation this one boasts Denis Leary as a Charlestown car thief whose complacent, larcenous lifestyle crumbles when friends and relatives get whacked for perceived violations of the local code of silence. Should he buck tradition and be a snitch (one of the film's previous titles), turning in ruthless mob chieftain Colm Meaney to world-weary police inspector Martin Sheen? Should he just count his money and keep quiet? Take justice into his own hands?

As those questions stumble toward their predictable resolutions, most of the film's best moments remain inconsequential -- Leary and his pals on coke and booze discussing popular movies, or cruising the streets in a cab and alighting on an African-American who wandered into town by mistake. The latter scene is jarring, if gratuitous, demonstrating the kind of edge and energy this pedestrian effort otherwise lacks. Screens at the Cheri Thursday, September 10 at 7:45 p.m. and at the Copley Place Friday, September 11 at 1:15, 3:15, and 5:15 p.m. Director Ted Demme and star Denis Leary will appear to introduce Thursday's 7:45 showing.

-- Peter Keough

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Film Festival Feature Films

| With Friends like These | Digging to China | Monument Ave. | Rounders | Lolita | God Said, 'Ha!' | My Son the Fanatic | The Mighty | Shattered Image | Gods and Monsters | Xui Xui: The Sent-Down Girl | Without Limits | Clubland | The Inheritors | The Celebration | Urban Ghost Story | The Boys | Living Out Loud | Stuart Bliss | The General | The Kindness of Strangers | Dancing at Lughnasa | Central Station | The Human Race | Double You Street | Oberwasser -- By U-boat to America | The Witman Boys | The Cruise | Confession of a Sexist Pig | Melting Pot |

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More Boston Film Festival information, film descriptions, and show times

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