Tale about an immigrant street hustler thrust into parenthood proves to be affecting

Winner of the best narrative feature award at the 2008 Los Angeles Film Festival, Prince of Broadway is the latest social-realist trip to New York City from writer/director Sean Baker—best known as the co-creator of the cult puppet sitcom Greg the Bunny. This one, however, is all moppet and no Muppet—an affecting tale of an immigrant street hustler who has parenthood, literally, thrust upon him in a shady stairwell in the Garment District. In an interesting bit of timing, Prince of Broadway is arriving on the film-fest circuit less than a month after CAVU Pictures’ release of Baker’s long-on-the-shelf sophomore effort Take Out. Word of mouth could conceivably push this one past that one, but the absolutely starless cast of this Broadway production will leave even well meaning marketeers little to work with.

Little, that is, except for the incredibly clever tagline “it’s a hard knock-off life,” which perfectly encapsulates the scenario. Lucky (non-pro newcomer Prince Adu) is a West African immigrant who charms bargain hunters into following him past a storefront manned by an Armenian-Lebanese shopkeeper named Levon (Karren Karagulian, who has appeared in all three of Baker’s pictures) and through a hidden door. Inside, the fearless fashionistas find a treasure trove of contraband and counterfeit items.

Although he lives a day-to-day existence, Lucky seems on the cusp of moving on to bigger and better things: He has started a supportive relationship with Karina (Keyali Mayaga) and saved a couple thousand dollars to pay for an education. But then an ex (Kat Sanchez) ambushes him the aforementioned stairwell, shoving an 18-month-old toddler (Aiden Noesi) into his hands and ordering him to “be a responsible father” for “two weeks” before running away. She doesn’t even tell Lucky the baby boy’s name.

His reaction is realistic, to say the least. “What the f--k is going on?” Lucky yells.

Lucky’s panic turns out to justified, as the unexpected duties of fatherhood quickly push both his finances and his relationship with Karina to their respective breaking points. Only Levon—surprisingly—is entirely sympathetic to Lucky’s plight, but even he’s distracted by the disintegration of his marriage to the much-younger Nadia (Victoria Tate).

With his cinema-verité treatment of baby-daddy drama in Prince of Broadway, Baker proves himself a worthy heir to the Italian neorealists of the ’40s and ’50s—capturing capably the desperation, and potential defeat, inherent in poverty. Arthouse audiences will be properly appreciative.

This film was reviewed at the Los Angeles Film Festival

Distributor: TBD
Cast: Prince Adu, Karren Karagulian, Keyali Mayaga, Victoria Tate, Kat Sanchez and Aiden Noesi
Director: Sean Baker
Screenwriters: Sean Baker and Darren Dean
Producer: Darren Dean
Genre: Drama
Rating: Not yet rated
Running time: 102 min.
Release date: TBD