Starring: Brad Pitt, Scoot McNairy, Richard Jenkins
Overall Rating: 77.2
"This guy wants to tell me we're living in a community? Don't make me laugh. I'm living in America, and in America you're on your own. America's not a country. It's just a business. Now fuckin' pay me."
I'm sure it's not normal to quote the last lines of a film as the first lines of a review, but I feel it's these lines that so eloquently describe Killing Them Softly. Being a film that was so critically praised, but scorned by movie-goers, I knew there was going to be a "love it or hate it" mentality associated, but all in all, the film achieves what it sent out to do: It tells a story within a story.
The film takes us into the underground of the 21st century of the mobster-mentality. A mentality so strongly rooted in its past, but still always looking for innovation and advancement. When a card game is robbed, the top of the mob food chain has to take action to prevent future crimes from happening, so they send in an enforcer to clean up. This enforcer named Jackie Cogan, played with unassuming strength by Brad Pitt, harkens the audience back to a day of the Godfather or Goodfellas. He's a no-nonsense guy who is going to do what he's told, but if he doesn't like what is being told to him, he's also going to make sure you know it.
The brilliance of the movie is the ongoing parallel between the mob and the financial collapse of 2008. When the card game is robbed, the criminal economy crashes. Nobody is sure of the security of any other games. In order to get the money flowing again, the criminal world must be "bailed out", by Cogan and the bosses wiping the slate clean. Innocent? It doesn't matter. If you're implicated, you're guilty. And if you're guilty, you're going to have to pay so that others can prosper.
Cogan embodies the average American. When discussing orders with his go-between (Jenkins) and hearing that the decision makers can't make decisions and the whole process of the "mob" has become like a corporation, he broods frustration. He's willing to do the dirty work to make things right, but is prevented by people above his pay grade.
Scoot McNairy (Argo) shines and gets the majority of screen time. Frankie is good for a number of laughs, but is also the morality of both sides. He understands what his role in everything is, but is unwilling to accept it. Whether working with his dirty partner to knock off the card game, or working with Cogan to save his own ass, McNairy shows both the arrogance of a schlub who was able to rob something that shouldn't have been able to have been robbed, as well as the cowering fear associated with said robbery.
It's easy to see why so many critics gave the film high praise, while the consensus among the audience was negative (a 48% by viewers on Rotten Tomatoes). While the story may not explode off the screen, the subtlety that director Andrew Dominik displays makes the overall visuals of the film very pleasant. Whether it's a slow motion car crash or execution, or a camera placed on a car door being opened and closed, we get a slew of unique shots that showcase the talent of the director. Yes the pacing is slow, but coming from the man who made a Western about Jesse James with all of 3 minutes of action, you should have tempered your expectations going in.
It's not The Sopranos or Goodfellas, but Killing Them Softly does take the audience into the junked up world of the new age of the mob. It's not glitz and glamor like Scorsese told us, but a dirty, drag-em-out game that very few get to win. And we come full circle back to the capitalism parallel...
Individual Ratings
Enjoyment Factor: 6
Dialogue: 7
Acting: 7
Direction: 9
Audio/Visual: 9
No comments:
Post a Comment