‘True Friends’ a Warm but Familiar Tale

“True Friends” draws upon the actual friendship of its three stars, James Quattrochi, Loreto Mauro and Rodrigo Botero, to tell an archetypal coming-of-age story, set in an Italian American neighborhood in the Bronx. It abounds with warmth and caring, which figures since Quattrochi also directed and collaborated on the script with Botero.

If “True Friends” is finally too familiar and too sentimental for its own good, it nevertheless is well acted and well paced and calls attention to three personable young actors.

The film gets underway some 15 years or so in the past when J.J. and his single mother become the first Puerto Ricans to move into the neighborhood. J.J. immediately becomes the target of racist schoolyard bullies, but when he’s rescued by Joey and Louie, he swiftly becomes friends with them for life.

Botero, Quattrochi and Mauro play J.J., Joey and Louie, respectively, as young men, and Bryan Burke, Kyle Gibson and Mario Pendon play them as adolescents. The boys match up well with the film’s stars, and as actors they are easily as effective as their adult counterparts.

On the whole, the trio enjoy an idyllic adolescence in which fun, friendship and loving parents count for more than wealth. Maybe it was all too perfect, for the boys grow up with a notable lack of ambition. All they want is to somehow raise $30,000 to take over a neighborhood bar. By the time their dream seems within their grasp, however, the specter of tragedy looms from two directions, presenting the trio with enormous challenges.

“True Friends” combines establishing shots filmed in the East with local settings reasonably well, if not perfectly, and it leaves you confident that Quattrochi, Mauro and Botero have what it takes to move beyond this very personal, ultra-low-budget picture.

* MPAA rating: R, for language, drug use, some sexuality and violence. Times guidelines: The language and violence are true to the film’s milieu and not exploitative; the sexuality is mild.

‘True Friends’

James Quattrochi: Joey

Loreto Mauro: Louie

Rodrigo Botero: J.J.

A 2nd Generation Films presentation. Director James Quattrochi. Producers Danny Zavala, Darren Paskal, Joseph Paskal. Executive producers Quattrochi, Mauro and Botero. Screenplay by Quattrochi and Botero. Cinematographer Jeff Baustert. Editor Barclay DeVeau. Music Charles Dayton. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.

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* At selected theaters in Los Angeles County.