The answer my friend is a hat blowing in the wind. The Coen brothers craft a loving homage to gangster pictures of yore with splendid results. Essentially the plot has Gabriel Byrne as a good - bad guy caught between two rival gangster factions. It's a standard story line that is still providing cinematic water for many a film maker these days, but shot through the Coen prism, with literary astuteness holding court, it's a genre piece of considerable class. A picture in fact that gets better and better with further viewings. When the Coen's are on form they have the skills to make a grade "A" thriller and blend it with a sort of dry irony. It's like they bite the hand that feeds whilst praising said genre influences to the rafters, but it works as damn fine entertainment. On a narrative level Miller's Crossing molds the byzantine with the labyrinthine, keeping the complexities just on the right side of the street from that of art for arts sake. Visually the film is superb, the hard working sweat of the city dovetails impudently with the mother nature beauty of Miller's Crossing the place, a place home to misery, a witness to the dark side of man. All the while Byrne, Albert Finney, John Turturro and Jon Polito bring an array of characterisations to the party, each one his own man but each craftily proving the folly of man. Marcia Gay Harden, in one of her first mainstream roles, slinks about making the two main boys sweaty, and wonderful she is as well. While Carter Burwell provides a musical score that has a smug (in a good way) self awareness about it. Style over substance? Yes, on formative viewings it is. But go back, look again, see and sample what is not being said. Pulpers and noirers will I'm sure get the gist. 8/10
Gabriel Byrne is "Reagan", the enforcer for the pretty ruthless mob kingpin "Leo" (Albert Finney). He is caught in the middle of a battle between his boss and the man who would take his place "Caspar" (John Polito) over the antics of a rogue bookie "Bernie" (the scene-stealing John Turturro) who also happens to be the brother of "Verna" (Marcia Gay Harden) - the girlfriend of Leo, oh - and the mistress of "Reagan" too. "Reagan" tries to be a bit of an honest broker between them all, but when his efforts fail, he is cast aside by his former boss and left to fend for himself... On the face of it, this is just a run-of-the-mill gangster film. People are killed and the vicious circle of revenge continues. Quite cleverly, though, the Coen brothers have done quite a bit to present more complex characters and to give the plot a little more quirkiness - and that makes this an interesting two hours to watch. Finney's accent is a bit hit or miss, and I'm afraid Byrne just isn't a strong enough actor to carry his substantial part so well - he is no Edward G. Robinson or George Raft, but this is still a superior delve into the murky world of organised crime that does bear watching.
A tale of cheats and impostors, taking its inspiration from true facts and from one of the most intriguing characters of recent decades: the spy Francisco Paesa.
Movie Star Rating : 6.4 Read More
Grim and almost surreal depiction of corruption in Vojvodina city.
Movie Star Rating : 5.5 Read More
Tyler is a young man who is desperately seeking direction from a world that seems to have abandoned him. Searching for answers he looks to his new friend Indrid who appears to have it all figured out.
Movie Star Rating : 5.3 Read More
Rio Branco, Acre, an Amazon city near the border with Peru and Bolivia, has been suffering the violent impacts of recent changes in trafficking routes, which have arrived with violence in the Brazilian Amazon. In this scenario, the lives of three young childhood friends intertwine and ultimately, they find themselves in a common tragedy.
Movie Star Rating : 7 Read More
Toro (Spanish for "Bull") is a young con man and the right hand of Romano, a powerful mob boss in Torremolinos, Málaga (Andalusia, south to Spain). After Toro decides to leave Romano to get a life free of crime, his last sting fails, resulting one of his brothers dead and he sent to jail. Five years later, Romano realizes that López, Toro's older brother, is robbing him money from his tourism business and he orders to kidnap Diana, López's little daughter, until this one get back the money. Without options, López visits Toro, now a touristic driver with the third grade prison close to get the parole, who only wants to be free to marry his girlfriend Estrella. When Toro accepts to help López and both meet Romano looking for a solution, Toro ends attacking Romano's men and fleeing with Diana, trying to escape from Romano's revenge. But Romano starts a ruthless searching for they three, meanwhile Toro counts the hours to back the prison according to the third grade...
Movie Star Rating : 6 Read More
In the Autumn of 1991 Croatia is fighting for independence and the capital Zagreb is plagued by air raid alerts and blackouts. Hela Martinic is a reporter, who returns to her home town from Australia, called by her old friend Vera Kralj. Soon after arrival, she is told her friend was killed in a traffic accident. At the funeral she meets some people who Vera was involved in some sinister activities and she begins her own investigation.
Movie Star Rating : 5 Read More
Emily appears to have the perfect life with a daughter, a successful PR firm, a family inheritance, and a strong marriage with Kyle. But everything falls apart when Lily arrives claiming to be her half-sister, causing chaos in her world. (from IMDB)
Movie Star Rating : 4 Read More
The next great psycho horror slasher has given a documentary crew exclusive access to his life as he plans his reign of terror over the sleepy town of Glen Echo, all the while deconstructing the conventions and archetypes of the horror genre for them.
Movie Star Rating : 6.5 Read More
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