Filmmakers enjoy setting essential scenes at Italian weddings, whether they’re the centerpiece of a delightful romantic comedy like “Lovers and Other Strangers” or showcased in a classic crime drama like “The Godfather.” At the Versailles Palace, a neighborhood banquet hall in Queens, weddings share the spotlight with parties celebrating birthdays, engagements, retirements, baptisms and confirmations.

The new comedy-drama “Somewhere In Queens” uses its banquet hall as the staging area for introducing us to the Russo family, a colorful and occasionally boisterous Italian-American family that, thanks to the team that created the movie, never wallows in stereotypes, regardless of what a few complainers think. Sorry folks, meatballs are not a stereotype. They are a life force.