A new South Philly crime drama debuts on the big screen and Amazon Prime

Frank Joseph Tartaglia and his older brother, Joseph Frank Tartaglia, long dreamed of leaving the family fruit stand for Hollywood stardom.

Back in 2006, when they first opened a live music venue on Ninth Street, Connie’s Ric Rac, Frankie and Joe Tartaglia — and their best friend and business partner, Peter Pelullo — would sit for hours after closing, spit-balling script ideas. They wanted to tell a South Philly story that captured the neighborhood they knew and that could make their dreams real.

Then, they were gone.

First, Joe, a filmmaker, musician, and father of three, died in 2013 at age 44 from brain cancer. Then, Frankie, a comedian, writer, actor, and true South Philly original, died in his sleep from heart failure in 2022, just a month after his first feature film, Not for Nothing, headlined the Philadelphia Film Festival to positive reviews.

Now, Frankie and Joe Tartaglias’ big screen dreams are finally becoming a reality.

On Thursday, Not for Nothing, a gritty crime drama set in the heart of South Philly and written by Frankie Tartaglia and Philly-born filmmaker Tim Dowlin, made its big screen debut at the Film Society Bourse in Old City. On Friday, the movie, acquired for worldwide distribution last year by the independent film studio, Buffalo 8, premiered on Amazon Prime and other major streaming services. It will be available on other cable platforms later this month.

“It’s emotional,” said Pelullo, executive producer on the film. “It’s very rewarding for everyone involved to see it reach this place and get across the finish line. But it’s bittersweet. Joe would have been really proud of Frankie and Frankie would have been excited for what was next.”

He said, “That’s the painful part. This wasn’t supposed to be the end. It was supposed to be the beginning.”

The film has been a journey.

Starring actor Mark Webber and praised by critics as a gripping tale infused with heart and humor, Not for Nothing follows a group of neighborhood friends who set out to uncover the truth behind a young woman’s mysterious overdose. The search for justice soon unravels into a confrontation with the ghosts of South Philly’s past.

It’s just the type of authentic South Philly tale Frankie and Joe Tartaglia long strove to share. One that found its first roots in an independent film Joe and Frankie filmed in South Philly in 1998, called Punctuality (a quirky neighborhood film they described as Clerks meets A Bronx Tale). And one that continued to take shape during those long-ago, late-night brainstorming sessions at the Ric Rac, a grungy, glorious haven for South Philly artists and musicians that closed permanently during the pandemic.

Carrying on the dream after Joe Tartaglia’s death, Frankie Tartaglia had reconnected with Dowlin by 2017. The pair had first become friends at the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts. Dowlin, who had already made films with Webber, another high school friend, approached Frankie about making a modern-day South Philly mob flick.

From the start, Frankie wanted to tell something more, Dowlin recalled.

“He immediately was like, ‘I don’t think that’s real,’” Dowlin recalled. “He wanted to explore something more authentic to the world he grew up in on Ninth Street, and at the bar at Connie’s Ric Rac.”

Their script became less about the neighborhood goodfellas and more of exploration about South Philly corner bar culture — and the friendships formed in them.

Still in the process of selling the film at the time of Frankie’s death, Dowlin and Pelullo worked for three years to make sure that his vision reached audiences.

This summer, Connie Tartaglia, 76, an artist who ceaselessly encouraged her sons — and the namesake of their old club — died from an illness. She had hoped to live long enough to see the film released, Dowlin said.

Before Thursday’s packed premiere, Dowlin told the crowd about the friend and collaborator he had lost — and that Philly had lost too.

“He was an unstoppable force of love and art,” he said, of Frankie Tartaglia. “He embodied every artist everywhere. He was a champion for the unseen and unheard.”

Frankie had planned pn dedicating the film to the older brother he looked up to, Dowlin said.

Now, he hoped the film would live in both of their memories.

“I would like to dedicate this film to both of the Tartaglia brothers,” he said.