mintys marathon movie medley – xix
This might be cheating a bit as it’s a clip I’ve posted before, albeit under a review rather than the melody strand, but having seen the Murdoch press already lining up their targets as the UK General election is finally called there was only one sequence that demanded repeating:
The link is Ned Beatty who starred as Detective Bolander in the first couple of seasons of Homicide. This sprang to mind as it makes me almost incandescently angry to see our ‘free’ press at work and the unholy stench of that Australian billionaire wield his unwarranted influence on our countries political system. Mark my words, if the Tories win then the BBC as we know it will be gone in five years. Just to be clear, as much as I loathe and will never vote Tory it doesn’t mean I’m a Labour man, that particular boat, like many of my generation sank swiftly after 1997. Living n Tower Hamlets also raises a more complications with the likes of the Respect party to factor into my vote allocation.
It’s always quite interesting to be on assignment when an election kicks off and purdah cones into force, thankfully my current programme doesn’t have much if a party political bend to it yet. In the interim here’s to four weeks of madness, what can I say, I’m weird and to me this is more fun than the World cup….
Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead
Second week of the year, third film – a good start and thankfully another good movie. Sidney Lumet puts his colleagues to shame – at 84 year old he’s crafted a tense, modern, robust little thriller with another incredible performance from the great Philip Seymour Hoffman.
New York, present day. Two brothers, Andrew Hanson (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Henry Hanson (Ethan Hawke) are both experiencing financial difficulties – Henry has crippiling alimony and a demanding daughter whilst Andy is struggling to keep his trophy wife Gina (Marisa Tomei) happy and content. The domineering Andy hatches an improbable scheme to rob their parent’s suburban jewellery store and convinces his brother to help him – of course crime does not pay and the heist does not go to plan, leading both brothers down a dark path of destruction.
The film employs the traditional noir flashback structure which can become hackneyed and steer a movie perilously close to cliche but it works here with sequences and moments being re-visited from alternate characters perspectives. This is a very effective method to slowly reveal the true depths of degradation that the brothers are engulfed in – financially, chemically (drugs and alcohol abuse) and morally. The lynchpin to it all is Hoffman who is just incredible as the screwed-up elder brother, a man striving for respect and position in the world yet accepting his escalating troubles with a world weary resignation. It’s that entrapment, the collusion of terrible events and coincidence, the existential dread of hopelessness that is the essence of noir, – no matter how hard you try, no matter how much you struggle and fight – you’re fucked. On a happy note you also get to see Marisa Tomei’s tits three times. Reee-sult.
Sidney Lumet always tends to get overlooked as one of the core directors from the 1970’s in favour of Scorsese, De Palma, Spielberg, Lucas and the rest despite his making some of the essential films of the period such as ‘Serpico‘, ‘Dog Day Afternoon‘ and ‘Network‘ which remains the best and most prophetic film ever made about Television, cinema’s bastard litter brother. His best film though is the low-key drama ‘The Verdict‘ which has Paul Newman’s career best performance as a ambulance chasing lawyer who is given one final chance to make amends for his immoral ways – not dissimilar to ‘Michael Clayton’ as it happens now that I think of it. Someone call the copyright police!!
Minty's Menagerie 
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