Category: 2000s

The end of this film was somewhat familiar, so it’s entirely possible I had already seen this in the last twenty years. Gene Hackman is the retiring leader of a gang of thieves, which includes the talents of Delroy Lindo and Ricky Jay, whose most recent spoils are held back by his fence Danny DeVito unless the gang does ‘one more’ heist. Another part of the deal is that Hackman is required to take De Vito’s lieutenant Sam Rockwell along on this next job. A heist film that is more concerned with having its characters constantly turning the tables on each other than the actual heist, it is worth it to watch the cast in action. Hackman gets to riff with his crew and also play mind games with both De Vito and Rockwell. It’s unfortunate that it really does become a constant swinging door of switching allegiances one-upping each other because instead of being surprising and twisty, it becomes tedious by the end.

Waking up the morning after a party, two strangers find themselves in bed together and end up spending the rest of the day meandering around San Francisco together. It’s a bit of a more low-key, lower budget, modern city version of Before Sunrise. I had been curious about seeing Wyatt Cenac as an actor when this was first released and pushed it higher on my queue after seeing Barry Jenkins’s more recent efforts. It didn’t draw me in greatly, but I enjoyed the few moments where the city came across as a character itself and when it felt like the two main characters were making connections as people instead of actors just going through the motions. 

At the beginning of this film, this seems like it’s supposed to be a crime drama. Jack Nicholson is a police chief on the eve of his retirement who tags along to investigate a young girl’s murder. After a suspect commits suicide, the rest of the department washes their hands of the case, but Jack has promised the young girl’s parents that he would find her killer and isn’t satisfied. Thus Jack becomes a man on a single minded mission, not caring who or what could get in his way. It’s a study of one man’s obsession, spiraling down a labyrinth of possibilities and unable to move on to the next chapter of his life. It’s also got some great one scene cameos with the likes of Helen Mirren, Mickey Rourke, Lois Smith, Harry Dean Stanton, and Vanessa Redgrave.

William H. Macy is a hitman in the family business run by his parents Donald Sutherland and Barbara Bain. He’s suffering from a midlife crisis that affects both his job and his relationship with his wife Tracey Ullman. He meets Neve Campbell in his shrink’s (played by John Ritter) waiting room. It’s yet another take on the middle aged man lusting after a much younger woman trope, though with a decidedly non comedic and more modern take. I definitely watched this for the cast, but the result is quite slow and somewhat maddening in parts. I appreciated the parts that showed the dark spots in the family that illustrated a bit how a family of assassins comes to be. I particularly enjoyed Ullman and Ritter’s performances. Since they’re both known as comedic actors, I was impressed at how subdued and deliberate they come across in a drama.