A pre-‘Sopranos’ study heads a full movie week

Above : Michael Gandolfini stars as the young Tony Soprano in “The Many Saints of Newark,” which opens Friday. (Photo/Warner Bros.)

On Jan. 10, 1999, HBO premiered a series that was destined to go down as one of the most critically acclaimed in broadcast history.

It was a little production titled “The Sopranos.”

Created by David Chase , and written by him and a handful of other writers (including Matthew Weiner of “Mad Men” fame), “The Sopranos” played for six seasons and 86 episodes. Over the course of its run, the series won 21 Emmy Awards – three for the late actor James Gandolfini , who played the series lead character, Tony Soprano.

On Friday, “The Sopranos” will be remembered when the film “The Many Saints of Newark” will open. Directed by Alan Taylor, and based on a screenplay by Chase and Lawrence Konner, the film is a prequel to the HBO series. It stars Michael Gandolfini , James Gandolfini’s son, as the young Tony Soprano, as well as Alessandro Nivola, Jon Bernthal, Ray Liotta and Vera Farmiga.

The reviews are nearly universally good.

Leah Greenblatt , Entertainment Weekly: “ ‘Saints’ can’t be what Sopranos was – without the time or the ones who’ve been lost to tell it, fuggedaboutit. But for a hundred-something minutes, it feels close enough to coming home again.”

Charlotte O’Sullivan , London Evening Standard: “Casually important, traumatically enjoyable, ‘The Many Saints of Newark’ is a tale of the unexpected that will cause cineastes, as well as life-long couch potatoes, to cry hallelujah.”

David Erlich , IndieWire: “If ‘The Many Saints of Newark’ is divided against itself to a certain degree… the young Gandolfini brings such primacy to the character that every scene he’s in feels naturally formative.”

The coming week will no doubt offer something else as well. Three other films are scheduled to open.

“The Addams Family 2” : Gomez, Morticia et al continue their gravely comic ventures in this animated sequel to 2019’s “The Addams Family.” Featuring the voices of Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, Chloë Grace Moretz and others.

No advance reviews available at this point. Which is never a good sign.

“Venom: Let There Be Carnage” : Tom Hardy returns as the hapless Eddie Brock, possessed by a symbiote called Venom, who this time goes in search of a serial killer named Carnage.

Again, no advance reviews are available.

“Titane” : Winner of the Palm d’Or at Cannes, this French-language drama follows a young woman (Agathe Rousselle) who survives a car crash only to embark on a personal sojourn into strange behavior.

Ann Hornaday , The Washington Post: “ As (director Julia) Ducournau ratchets up the imagery – which takes body horror into exponentially more graphic and sadistic territory as Alexia suffers grotesque physical changes – ‘Titane’ becomes less an engrossing allegory or even arresting spectacle than an exercise in sheer endurance: How far can the filmmaker push her viewers before we look away in disgust or, worse, indifference?”

That’s it for the moment. I’ll update as the week progresses.