The crisp, on-the-street feel of Southie is stylistically alluring, and the eclectic soundtrack, which commingles punk, rap, Celtic folk, and rock, provides a poignantly subtle energy, but as a novice director Shea, in his rush to paint "his" Southie as a dark and foreboding underworld, aggrandizes each scene with looming tragic circumstance and overheated conflict. What begins as a well-intentioned gangster flick heads south for regions that are bombastic, scattered, and one-dimensional.