My wife and I both really enjoyed City Island, more than we expected to. It is gathering steam as a summer sleeper movie, and I can see why. It’s funny, honest, even a bit moving, and has wonderful performances across the board, especially by Andy Garcia, an actor I have never really liked all that much but who really impressed me here.

Some criticize City Island for following a formula of recent Indie-film success (basically, the Little Miss Sunshine formula.) But I would argue that it does it with considerably more skill and heart. It was made by Raymond De Felitta, who back on 2000 made a virtually unknown but wonderful and heartfelt little film called Two Family House (which featured Kelly Macdonald before she was “Kelly Macdonald!”) Two Family House is definitely worth Netflixing if you are in the mood for a great little unknown movie.

City Island is definitely worth seeing! Very enjoyable!