Reel Brooklyn: Little Odessa, Brighton Beach

Reel Brooklyn is a biweekly column chronicling the definitive history of Brooklyn on-screen, one film—and neighborhood—at a time.
One of our most dogged and uncompromised chroniclers of modern-day Brooklyn,dark-hat indie auteur James Gray also occupies a borough of his own making—in his world, Brooklyn is a dank, decaying rat maze of back alleys, unlit streets, heaped grave-sized backyards, clashing tribal identities, pervasive malaise, and quietly rampaging sociopathy. In fiv