State of Grace

REVIEW
A Mean Streets-like vision of the inner workings of Manhattan's Irish-American mob. Based on journalistic accounts of the "Westies," a real-life Hell's Kitchen band of thugs known for their brutal savagery, the film accurately depicts the erratic and unpredictable violence which rules the streets of New York. Oldman is stellar as Jackie Flannery, a dangerously loose cannon in the gang. Penn is a childhood friend who returns to the neighborhood after a long absence. Highly stylized, State of Grace centers on the attempted union of the "Westies" with the Italian mafia in the mid-'70s.