Film Pairings – Danger In Small Places

These two crime films run against the trend. No special effects. No gratuitous violence.  And only one pitiful car chase between them. Instead we get literate, intimate stories about how crime affects those whose lives are intertwined with the victims, and stellar casts to tell the stories.

Philip Seymour Hoffman, John Torturo

In God’s Pocket — Philip Seymour Hoffman, who died shortly after the film was released last year at Sundance, plays the guy who tries to clean things up after his particularly nasty stepson is killed. While director John Slattery fails, in my mind, with the humor side of dark humor, he does effectively render the culturally incestuous city neighborhood, God’s Pocket, as a place where murder, racism and xenophobia rule. Hoffman captures the well-intentioned but powerless poor soul with every movement and every utterance. His every action makes a bad situation worse.  John Torturo, and Richard Jenkins give their usual fine performances. The film is based on Pete Dexter’s novel.

Sissy Spacek

In The Bedroom — This is about as literary as a film can get.  I didn't read Andre Dubus’ short story, “Killings,” on which this film is based. Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson play the parents of a young man who is about to embark upon his life. The youth, played by Nick Stahl, is killed by his girlfriend’s (Marisa Tomei) ex-husband. The event is devastating as we witness, moment by moment, the collateral damage. The killer, whose defense is self-defense, is out on bond and is hardly invisible in the tiny town. His presence and the likelihood his sentence will, if he is convicted at all, be light, is beyond the grieving parents’ ability to cope. I mentioned this film to a friend of mine.  A parent herself, she said this was one of the best movies she’d ever seen and that it is on her list of films she’d never, ever see again. Field, Spacek, Wilkinson and Tomei were nominated for nearly every award imaginable. The film was directed by Todd Field and released in 2001.

Refreshments: We can go from beer – PBR is okay – for the first film, which takes place in a seedy, insular, explosive city neighborhood to, considering the change of scenery, a modest white wine for the second, which has a charming emotionally repressed northeast lobster-trapping village as a backdrop.

Film Pairings — Two Very Different, And Nearly Flawless Films

Often I put two movies together because of some tangible similarity — plot, character, cinematic style, even setting.  These two are none of the above.  The only thing they have in common is that they are really good.  But they couldn’t be more different

A Most Wanted Man — This is one of the last films with Philip Seymour Hoffman in a leading role.  I was well into the film when I became increasingly conscious of its familiarity.  I immediately checked.  The movie was based on a novel of the same name by John Le Carré.  I should have known, of course.  Espionage, terrorism and innocence are brought to a boil with the same sense of double crossing, blind alleys and distrust that permeate the master’s books and with same frumpy realism brought to almost all of the film manifestations of his work. Hoffman is consequential in a role of a relatively inconsequential man.  Burnt out and perhaps down to his last chance to do right, Hoffman has perfect pitch for a man so seemingly ordinary, so disappointed and so weary with the world. Directed by Anton Corbijn, the film also features Rachel McAdams, and Willem Dafoe.

Point Blank — Not the least bit frumpy or subtle, Point Blank might be one of the sharpest, tightest, and oddly most stylized crime films ever.  It surprised me that Lee Marvin turned out to be the perfect lead. I’ve always found him a credible and an interesting actor — The Big Heat, for example — and strong in supporting roles. But carry a two-hour movie?  I wouldn’t have thought so. He does. The only other quality the two movies share is that they are based on popular novels by master craftsmen.  In this case the book is The Hunter by Richard Stark (Donald Westlake). Marvin plays Walker — a character named Parker in the series of books that has spawned other films. Walker was cheated out of his wife and his share of a job, both thefts by his best friend.  But all Walker really wants is his share of the take. He and the movie move toward that goal with a vengeance. This is a powerful film with a great deal of credit going to Marvin.  It’s also a beautiful, moody, well-lit, incredibly designed and photographed work of art. Directed by John Boorman it also features a striking Angie Dickinson as well as fine performances by Carroll O’Connor, Keenan Wynn and Lloyd Bochner.

If its cold outside nothing wrong with a little cognac or other brandy to keep you warm and mellow while you watch two great movies.