{"id":429757,"date":"2025-12-06T23:07:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T23:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/429757\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T23:07:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T23:07:15","slug":"a-new-south-philly-crime-drama-debuts-on-the-big-screen-and-amazon-prime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/429757\/","title":{"rendered":"A new South Philly crime drama debuts on the big screen and Amazon Prime"},"content":{"rendered":"

Frank Joseph Tartaglia and his older brother, Joseph Frank Tartaglia, long dreamed<\/a> of leaving the family fruit stand for Hollywood stardom. <\/p>\n

Back in 2006, when they first opened a live music venue on Ninth Street, Connie\u2019s Ric Rac<\/a>, Frankie and Joe Tartaglia \u2014 and their best friend and business partner, Peter Pelullo \u2014 would sit for hours after closing, spitballing script ideas. The brothers wanted to tell a South Philly story that captured the neighborhood they knew and that could make their dreams real.<\/p>\n

Then they were gone. <\/p>\n

First, Joe, a filmmaker, a musician, and a father of three, died in 2013 at age 44 of brain cancer. Then, Frankie, a comedian, a writer, an actor, and a true South Philly original, died in his sleep<\/a> of heart failure in 2022, just a month after his first feature film, Not for Nothing, headlined the Philadelphia Film Festival to positive reviews.<\/p>\n

Now, Frankie and Joe Tartaglia\u2019s big-screen dreams are finally becoming a reality. <\/p>\n

On Thursday, Not for Nothing, a gritty crime drama set in the heart of South Philly and written by Frankie Tartaglia and Philly-born filmmaker Tim Dowlin, debuted at the Film Society Bourse in Old City<\/a>. On Friday, the movie, acquired for worldwide distribution last year by the independent film studio Buffalo 8, premiered on Amazon Prime and other major streaming services. It will be available on other cable platforms later this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s emotional,\u201d said Pelullo, executive producer on the film. \u201cIt\u2019s very rewarding for everyone involved to see it reach this place and get across the finish line. But it\u2019s bittersweet. Joe would have been really proud of Frankie, and Frankie would have been excited for what was next.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cThat\u2019s the painful part. This wasn\u2019t supposed to be the end. It was supposed to be the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

The film has been a journey.<\/p>\n

Starring actor Mark Webber and praised by critics as a gripping tale infused with heart and humor, Not for Nothing follows a group of neighborhood friends who set out to uncover the truth behind a young woman\u2019s mysterious overdose. The search for justice soon unravels into a confrontation with the ghosts of South Philly\u2019s past.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just the type of authentic South Philly tale Frankie and Joe Tartaglia long strove to share. One that found its first roots in an independent film Joe and Frankie filmed in South Philly in 1998, called Punctuality (a quirky neighborhood film they described as Clerks meets A Bronx Tale). And one that continued to take shape during those long-ago, late-night brainstorming sessions at the Ric Rac, a grungy, glorious haven for South Philly artists and musicians that closed permanently during the pandemic. <\/p>\n

Carrying on the dream after Joe Tartaglia\u2019s death, Frankie Tartaglia had reconnected with Dowlin by 2017. The pair had first become friends at the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts. Dowlin, who had already made films with Webber, another high school friend, approached Frankie Tartaglia about making a modern-day South Philly mob flick.<\/p>\n

From the start, Dowlin recalled, Frankie wanted to tell something more.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe immediately was like, \u2018I don\u2019t think that\u2019s real,\u2019\u201d Dowlin recalled. \u201cHe wanted to explore something more authentic to the world he grew up in on Ninth Street, and at the bar at Connie\u2019s Ric Rac.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their script became less about the neighborhood goodfellas and more about an exploration of South Philly corner bar culture \u2014 and the friendships formed there.<\/p>\n

Still in the process of selling the film at the time of Frankie Tartaglia\u2019s death, Dowlin and Pelullo worked for three years to make sure that his vision reached audiences.<\/p>\n

This summer, Connie Tartaglia, 76, an artist who ceaselessly encouraged her sons \u2014 and was the namesake of their old club \u2014 died from an illness. She had hoped to live long enough to see the film released, Dowlin said.<\/p>\n

Before Thursday\u2019s packed premiere, Dowlin told the crowd about the friend and collaborator he had lost \u2014 and that Philly had lost, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was an unstoppable force of love and art,\u201d he said of Frankie Tartaglia. \u201cHe embodied every artist everywhere. He was a champion for the unseen and unheard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frankie had planned on dedicating the film to the older brother he looked up to, Dowlin said.<\/p>\n

Now, he hoped the film would live in both of their memories.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to dedicate this film to both of the Tartaglia brothers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Frank Joseph Tartaglia and his older brother, Joseph Frank Tartaglia, long dreamed of leaving the family fruit stand…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":429758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,199766,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-429757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-not-for-nothing-south-philly-tartaglia","10":"tag-pa","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-philadelphia","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115675139276086906","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}