Nice boy

the long version

Nice Boy is as fast-paced and intoxicating as the drugs that dominate the lives of its characters. Excitement and unexpected complications enter Gregory's life as he begins to move away from his stable working-class neighborhood in Queens and into the hazardous underbelly of New York street life. Through a series of savage and humorous vignettes, Veltri creates the unforgettable pageant of Gregory's large Italian-American family, his friends, addicts, hustlers, sadistic cops, and the denizens of rehab. This is not the story of a young drug addict trying to kick heroin, but is an incantatory tale about ordinary people in the urban world, some who suffer and die and some who survive.