Some people have a hard time with life. The menial day-to-day-ness of things is too dull—responsibilities and hard work and duty are flavorless pills that numb and age. In The Wannabe (2015), Thomas Uva (Vincent Piazza) can’t get it together and probably never will. It’s 1992 and he’s just out of jail after a brief stint for robbing a video store. His prospects are low, his work ethic zero. Who wants a handout job at his family’s florist’s shop? Not Thomas—he’s got bigger plans, and spends the best part of his days daydreaming about the vital role he will soon play for mob boss John Gotti. It doesn’t matter that the local wise guys want nothing to do with him. They’ll soon see. Once he makes his mark, they’ll have to pay attention. They’ll have to show respect.

Thomas lives in a fantasyland fueled by watching decades of gangster pictures and the warm sense of belonging that emanates from the local social clubs where Gotti, his crew, and other outfits hang out. These men are tough, ice cold, and deeply loyal to one another, with a sense of purpose (as Thomas sees it) and plenty of money to throw around. It’s during one of these evenings meandering around Ozone Park, hoping to catch a glimpse of a somebody, that Thomas spots Rose (Patricia Arquette), an attractive lady a few years older than him who doesn’t sneer at his threadbare appearance or braggart manner. Rose senses the sweetness beneath all the obsessive nonsense; Thomas sees a vulnerable woman who is equal parts compelling, passionate, and fragile.

Piazza and Arquette are perfectly centered in their roles as Thomas and Rose. They’re characters with irregular personalities, full of outbursts and sorrow, who have finally found each other. Nothing so far in their lives has gone well or been easy, but the relationship between them does—for once there’s no second-guessing, rejection, or failure. Their love is intense and special, and fuels humble dreams of a life together with steady jobs and a home and family.

 But Thomas’s fixation with becoming someone important on the streets by playing a part in fixing Gotti’s murder trial eats away at this storybook future before it begins. Rose has her own shaky history with the law and drugs, and together the couple’s deeply ingrained self-destructive tendencies can’t let a future this pure go unshattered. Slowly but surely the dream fades away and the bullshit of reality comes rushing back—stupid decisions beget truly bad ones, with momentary adrenaline rushes of violence and escape providing exquisite highs that keep raising the stakes.

Writer-director Nick Sandow is a familiar face to many, having been a character actor in nearly every TV thriller of the past two decades. His first feature, Ponies (2011), stars John Ventimiglia and the inimitable Kevin Corrigan as two hard-luck and hard-to-take guys having an impossible time getting through their day spent at the local OTB. The Wannabe, his sophomore film, is peppered with East Coast regulars like Ventimiglia, Michael Imperioli, Domenick Lombardozzi, David Zayas, and Mike Starr. The mood throughout is low-key and natural, with Ozone Park and the Bronx bathed in nocturnal red and yellow neon and neighborhood Italian restaurants cast in a wan, fluorescent green buzz. There’s nothing outwardly special about these guys Thomas idolizes, who seem to mostly sit around muttering in low voices, but because they inspire such passion in him, we’re obliged to give them a second look. They don’t flail around like Thomas, deciding what to do with their days—they are men of action, even if it seems like they’re always between takes.

If The Wannabe moves in sad and inexplicable directions, that’s because it’s based on the true story of Thomas and Rose, who were found murdered in their car on Christmas Eve 1992 after they’d been pegged as the duo who robbed a handful of private social clubs around New York. How they get there is hard to watch, yet feels oddly familiar. That sadness of wanting to belong somewhere, of feeling forever out of step, deeply resonates—along with the desire to escape the straitjacket of law-abiding routine through the high-stakes world of action. In the way they fail to make their mark, and in the story surrounding their deaths, Thomas and Rose Uva finally become the somebodies they always wanted to be.

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