Film Pairings — Gambling As A Means To A Bad End, Or Not

When I propose these double features, I’m not necessarily recommending them — at least not for every one. I mention this now because I have vey mixed feelings about both Killer Joe and Rounders. Both have fine casts; reason enough to see them, perhaps. The directors are experienced, and the story premises are promising.

However, Killer Joe, with its perfect noir plot, is nonetheless filled with gratuitous violence and prolonged humiliation. I felt this way before I read about director William Friedkin’s battle to keep it from getting the dreaded NC17 rating.  He lost that battle and a similar one in the U.K.  In the end, Friedkin did not make the cuts that would have made the film an “R’ and more profitable in general release.  Good for him.  But while I wholeheartedly support the director’s refusal to give in to censorship, I found myself censoring it on my own by fast-forwarding through scenes when the camera lingered far too long on scenes of little more than torture. Without spoiling the artful twists in plot, here’s the story: A sleazy, mentally disturbed Houston cop, Matthew McConaughey, is hired to kill a woman by the woman’s son, daughter and ex-husband. The son, Emile Hirsch, has a crushing gambling debt and is mere days from extinction.  He has exhausted all alternatives, except the one that brings Joe into their dysfunctional family.  With a common purpose — killing mom — gives family members reason to unite.  Juno Temple, Gina Gershon and Thomas Hayden Church, who brings depth to the depthless, make the characters and story all too real.

John Malkovich and Matt Damon

If Killer Joe suffers from some horribly misplaced exuberance, Rounders may be flawed by too much restraint.  John Dahl, director of one of my favorite, darkly comedic films — The Last Seduction — focuses on a promising young gambler played by Matt Damon in Rounders.  The problem for our protagonist in this film, like Killer Joe, is that when you gamble, sometimes you lose and sometimes you lose to the wrong people.  We spend most of the film as bystanders to poker games as Damon tries to climb out of deep debt the way he got into it — by gambling some more. Even for a poor poker player like me, this was more interesting than I would have imagined.  Each game brings with it its own drama.  However the central drama is the choice Damon’s character must make.  Should he, a smart law student, go straight or, as the devil on his shoulder, Edward Norton, counsels, “go pro” in the exciting world of high-stakes poker.  I stayed with the film for its promise.  Here was John Turturro, John Malkovich and Martin Landau. With all these great characters and the danger hovering over Damon’s genuinely decent character, what great surprise, what profound irony are we going to experience?  I have no idea.  He makes a choice.  If that’s it, it’s not enough.

This is definitely a beer night — the cheaper the better.

Film Pairing — An Odd Couple On The Best Crime Movies List

Sometimes great movies slip into oblivion.  Running on Empty, rarely talked about, was suggested by the blog “Tipping My Fedora,” a rich source for the analysis of crime fiction books and movies.  The other film, Miller’s Crossing pops up on one list or another, but it seems to be the critics’ stepchild when it comes to the almost sainted Coen brothers, who wrote, produced and directed the film. You are likely to hear more about Fargo, Raising Arizona or The Big Lebowski, where the comedy is closer to the surface. Miller’s Crossing, more like my favorite Blood Simple, is darker and a more ambitious film.  But the comedy, a bit more subtle it seems, is there and the movie is well worth the time.

Running on Empty is a small movie, low-key and its drama is actually not the crime, not the violence, not bringing the criminals to justice. It’s the backstory.  The family is in hiding, has been for years because of a politically motivated crime committed by the mother when she was young and revolutionary.  Her arrest would destroy the family.  But the incessant fear and hyper vigilance as well as the constant running takes a toll on the family. The pressure becomes almost unbearable as the oldest son must choose between keeping the family together and having a life of his own. Few actors can pull off the sort of vulnerability shown by the young River Phoenix  — Leonardo DiCaprio in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape comes to mind — but this is the performance that makes the film.  Judd Hirsch, Christine Lahti and Martha Plimpton form the main cast for this film directed by Sidney Lumet.  The film was up for several Academy and Golden Globe nominations.  It was loosely based on-real life situations.

 

Miller’s Crossing is a big movie, high key and its drama is the constant crime and violence. While I’m sure there are many who would disagree, Miller’s Crossing is magnificent. It is dark and deadly and crazy and unhappy.  It is violent and funny and its occasional preposterousness is entirely believable.  As luck would have it, I had just finished reading Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest and found this film a reconstruction of not only that era, but also that kind of corrupt, gritty reality that Hammett writes about, and similar in style. The film also has a similar humor that underlies both Hammett’s much more minimal narrative and his colorful dialogue.

Gabriel Byrne plays the burnt-out protagonist.  He has his own code of behavior, one that befuddles those around him, but is understandable to those who pay attention. It’s HIS code. And he doesn’t abandon it under any circumstances. Very Hammett. Albert Finney as a tough Irish mobster is riveting. John Turturro has an emotionally demanding role that he accommodates like the major talent he is. John Polito is, as always, the gangster’s gangster.  And J.E. Freeman plays against stereotype and is more than notable as “the Dane,” a cold, cruel gay villain. We see the emergence of other, eventual Coen regulars in small parts played by Steve Buscemi and Frances McDormand.

In the end, it’s a night of whiskey on the rocks.  Probably Irish in honor of the dominant mafia in Miller’s Crossing.  One could sip some wine during Running on Empty or simply wait until you get to the hard stuff for the Coen Brothers contribution to noir.  Lock up your Tommy guns.