Last year we got a new genre of filmmaking called Menthol
Noir in the form of Drive. This year,
it is Andrew Dominik’s Killing Them
Softly. If you’re in for a crackerjack violent bit of filmmaking with some
of the best dialogue of the year, it’s time for you to head over to the
multiplex.
An adaptation of George Higgins' 1974 book Cogan's Trade, Killing Them Softly is a raw, brutal crime dramedy set in a post Obama
financially challenged Boston.
Brad Pitt (who actually arrives much later in the film) stars as Cogan, a slick
freelance hitman, draped in oily black, and is as nihilistic as he is
professional. Cogan is summoned by a shady mobster (Richard Jenkins) to ‘take
care’ of two small time crooks who dared to upset the criminal syndicate of the
town by robbing a mafia poker game at gunpoint. The plot is simple but Dominik
packs in a shotgun blast of detailing, with a series of truly amazing spitfire set
pieces.
Killing them Softly is
not exactly subtle. Nearly every single character oozes sarcasm and nonchalant
disdain for the Obama administration. The opening shot has audio recordings of
the 2009 financial crisis, juxtaposed with stark, destitute, unforgiving urban
locales. In fact the film itself is quite misanthropic and to an extent hates
the paying audiences as well, but does it with a hell of a lot of sardonic
suaveness. This is not Casino or Sopranos, this is a world where hitmen
have to kill people for reduced fees because of the economic downturn. One
character viciously mouths ‘America
is not a country, it’s a business, so pay me my fucking money’.
The film is extremely dialogue heavy but it’s not all
preachy, and Dominik settles for a decidedly tongue in cheek tone for the most
part. The best scene involves two people trying to set a car on fire which ends
in a hilarious mess. The top notch cast of Pitt, Jenkins, James Gandolfini, Ben
Mendelsohn, Sam Shepherd are only matched by the stunning visual and aural
aesthetics. Scott McNairy (from the indie hit Monsters) is perfectly emancipated, an embodiment of
the small time crook who knows he screwed up and is running out of time and chances.
Ray Liotta is excellent in the polar opposite of his role in Goodfellas. Pitt’s character is classic,
and one hopes he gets to do more films with Dominik in the future. It’s also
ballsy of Pitt to take on this sort of role in a small film, instead of just
doing a commercial romcom or a Michael
Bay movie and count his Dineros.
Greg Fraser’s camerawork is mindblowing to say the least –
one slow motion car shootout plays out like a murderous ballet and it’s hard to
keep one’s lower jaw affixed to its upper counterpart. Another standout
sequence features a POV shot of a character coming in and out of a drug induced
haze. It’s not an action film, but the little bits of violence are stunning
enough to make you squirm in your seat. And it’s nasty as hell, but with a
certain freewheeling charm.
(First published in MiD Day)
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