The new movie Fresh Kills is a women-centered A Bronx Tale.

Its pitch: what’s life like for mafia ladies amid the mob’s patriarchal power structures? 

And both movies dabble in some topsy-turvy autobiographical casting.

A Bronx Tale is about the upbringing of screenwriter Chazz Palminteri. Yet instead of playing the character who’s based on himself in the movie, he plays The Don, the man/monster he could’ve become if he hadn’t escaped to Hollywood. 

And Fresh Kills is about the upbringing of writer/director Jennifer Esposito. Yet instead of playing the character who’s based on herself in the movie, she plays her mom, the trapped matriarch she could’ve become if she hadn’t escaped to Hollywood. 

As such, A Bronx Tale and Fresh Kills stand as exercises in how art can allow its creators to “not judge a person unless you’ve walked two moons in their moccasins.”